west into Wales, Cornwall, and Cumberland. The Franks settled in what is today the Low Countries, northeastern France, and western Germany. Other Germanic tribes – Sueves, Jutes, Burgundians, Danes – occupied their own little pieces of the former Roman Empire.
When centralized government vanished, when goods could no longer move across Europe safely on the roads built by the Romans, when commerce and coinage vanished, and the cities died, a new way of life, feudalism, evolved to provide for law and order and livelihood at the grassroots level. The Early Middle Ages was in many ways a “Dark Age,” a period of uncertainty and fear of both the present and the future. But, as the twelfth century approached, and the new invasions of the Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims came to an end, a new civilization began to appear, a synthesis of Classical Civilization, Judeo‐Christianity, and Germanic traditions. Western, or European, Civilization was born.
Early Germanic Kingdoms
Goths
After he deposed the last Roman emperor in the West, Romulus‐Augustulus, in 476, Odoacer ruled as King of Italy over a kingdom that included the Italian peninsula, Sicily (477), and the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea (480). Odoacer tried to preserve what was left of Roman civilization in his kingdom. He enjoyed the support of the Roman Senate, which continued in existence until c. 580. The fact that he remained at peace with the Roman Catholic Church, even though he was himself an Arian, testifies to his wisdom as a ruler. The Eastern Roman emperor, Zeno (425–491), granted Odoacer the title, “patrician.” The title was honorary. It was a means by which both the barbarian rulers and the Eastern Roman emperors could keep alive the myth of a united Roman Empire.
Encouraged by Zeno, Theodoric (454–526), King of the Ostrogoths, invaded Italy in 488. Odoacer's army was repeatedly defeated. When he took refuge in Ravenna in 489, Theodoric besieged the city. In February, 493, the bishop of Ravenna negotiated an agreement whereby Odoacer and Theodoric would rule jointly. Theodoric murdered Odoacer at a banquet to celebrate the agreement, and then proceeded to purge all of Odoacer's family and supporters.
Like Odoacer, Theodoric tried to preserve Roman civilization. Part of his plan was to establish justice for all of his subjects, which meant maintaining peace between the Roman population and the Goths (both Ostrogoths and Visigoths), and between the Trinitarian Christians (Roman Catholic) and the followers (mostly Goths) of the Arian heresy, while at the same time protecting his Jewish subjects. He reformed the laws so as to make them more equitable and repaired the old Roman aqueducts and buildings. Though he could neither read nor write, he encouraged learning.
It appears that Theodoric's aim was to civilize his own people within a Roman environment while maintaining peace among Italy's diverse population. In the end, he failed. The Italians (the native Roman population) were never reconciled to rule by the Ostrogoths, whom they saw as foreigners and worse, heretics. Between 535 and 554, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (482–565) reconquered Italy in a vain attempt to reconstitute the Roman Empire in the West. The Goths were driven out across the Alps, while what was left of Roman civilization in Italy was destroyed. All Odoacer's and Theodoric's efforts to save Roman civilization in Italy came to naught in the end.
Franks
It was the Kingdom of the Franks that proved to be the most important for the future emergence of a new European civilization. Unlike the other major Germanic kingdoms, only the Franks retained contact with their homeland along the eastern bank of the Rhine River. Thus, the Franks were able to receive continued growth from further Frankish immigrants. The other Germanic kingdoms were cut off from their places of origin. More important, most of the Germanic tribes that were converted to Christianity were converted to Arian Christianity. Only the Franks were orthodox Christians.
The Franks were united by Clovis I (c. 466–511) after his succession to the throne in 481. In 493, he married a Burgundian princess who was an orthodox Christian. Clovis converted to orthodox Christianity in 506. Their king's conversion meant the conversion of the Franks, also. By becoming Roman Catholic Christians, the Franks gained the support of the native population and the Roman Catholic Church with its organized bureaucracy throughout Western Europe. Clovis could, and did, lead his Frankish armies into battle against the other German tribes as the defender of the true Christian faith.
Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594), bishop and author of History of the Franks, recorded how Clovis' wars with the Arian Germans were seen as crusades to liberate Christians suffering under the rule of Arian heretics. Not only did the Christian population view Clovis as God's warrior, so too did the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I (c. 431–518). Anastasius granted Clovis the title Counsel following Clovis' defeat of the Arian Visigoths in 501. The relationship between the Franks and the Roman Catholic Church was mutually advantageous. The Franks gained the support of the Christian population, while the Roman Catholic Church gained a military defender.
The Merovingian dynasty continued to rule the Kingdom of the Franks until 751, when Clovis' kingdom was divided into three parts: Neustria, Gaul, and Austrasia. During the sixth and seventh centuries the Merovingian kings grew weak. Real power passed into the hands of those who held the office of Mayor of the Palace, manager of the king's household.
Pepin of Herstal (635–714) became Mayor of the Palace in Austrasia in 680. He united all of the Franks through a military victory in 687. Pepin did not become king. He remained Mayor of the Palace in all three of the Frankish kingdoms, plus Burgundy. He was succeeded as Mayor of the Palace by his illegitimate son, Charles Martel (c. 688–741).
In early October 732, Charles Martel stopped an invasion of Western Europe by an Arab‐Muslim army that crossed the Pyrenees Mountains from Spain into France. Today, historians dispute the military significance of the Battle of Tours, but what is certain is that throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, Charles Martel and the Franks were credited with saving Christendom from conquest by Islam. The perception that the Franks had saved Christianity further cemented the alliance between the Franks and the Catholic Church.
Charles Martel was succeeded by his son, Pepin III (714–768), also known as Pepin the Short, who deposed the last Merovingian king and became the first Carolingian king of the Franks. Pope Zachary (r. 741–752), who was dependent upon the Franks to protect the Church from the Arian Lombards who were threatening Rome, gave his blessing to the transition of power.
Pope Zachary's successor, Stephen II (r. 752–757) crossed the Alps in 753 to seek Pepin's aid. He anointed and crowned Pepin King of the Franks and conferred upon him and his sons the title “Patrician of the Romans.” Pepin invaded Italy in 756, defeated the Lombards, and gave Stephen the territories in central Italy formerly belonging to the Byzantine Empire.
The grant of territory to the papacy, known as the Donation of Pepin, later became the Papal States. It was a mixed blessing for the papacy. The papacy was henceforth free of secular control, at least in theory, but the pope was required to wear two hats, one spiritual and one political. He was both the head of the Christian church and ruler of the Papal States. The need to defend the independence of the Papal States and, with it, the independence of the Roman Catholic Church, became a major issue during the Middle Ages and beyond to the twentieth century.
Pepin's son and successor, Charlemagne (742–814) was the most significant figure during the early Middle Ages. During his long reign of 46 years, he created an empire that stretched from the Pyrenees in the west to the Ebro River in the east, and from the North Sea to central Italy. Though it did not long survive him, no other European leader would impose such unity in Europe until Napoleon Bonaparte at the beginning of the nineteenth century and Adolf Hitler in the middle of the twentieth century.
Charlemagne was in Rome during the Christmas season in 800. His journey was
