Humanities 1

Ch.8

Charlemagne: king of franks. Known as Charles the great. Dynamic and powerful ruler. Was pepins son. Greatly expanded the Carolingian empire during his lengthy rule. Decisive man and great warrior. Became emperor of Romans.

Carolingian Empire: beginning date is based on the crowning of Charlemagne. Realm of the franks. Charlemagne was king of the empire. They believed in monogamy.

Carolingian Intellectual Renewal: Charlemagne had a strong desire to revive learning in his kingdom. Had scriptoria which were writing rooms. Making a bible could require an entire herd of sheep. New writing style was created called Carolingian minuscule was created it was like hand printing rather than cursive. Had to educate clergy for the church and literate officials for the government.

Vikings: by far the most devastating and far reaching attacks of the time came from the vikings. Germanic people. They were warriors and were superb shipbuilders and sailors. Their ships were the best of the period. Long narrow with beautifully carved arched prows carried about fifty men on dragon ships. Sacked villages and towns destroyed churches, and easily defeated small local armies. Gave the vikings a part of France now called Normandy and converted them to Christianity.

Vassalage: derived from germanic society in which warriors swore and oath of loyalty to their leaders. An individual who served a lord was called a vassal. They got their needs taken care of in return. To become a vassal a man performed an act of homage tto his lord. Often gave land for their services. “the granting of a fief, or landed estate, in exchange for providing military services to the lord and fulfilling certain other oligations such as appering at the lords court when summoned and making a payment on the knighting of the lords eldest son.”

Fief: the land or other type of income granted to a vassal in return for military service came to be known as a fief. “landed estate granted to a vassal in...