Now, for the first time, Papal sanction was demanded and obtained for a change of dynasty. The last Merovingian king of the Franks was deposed in favour of Pepin, the son of Charles Martel. He was succeeded by his son, Karl, a German of the Germans, despite the French form of his popular title Charlemagne.

Charlemagne and His Empire

During his long reign the Moors in Spain were driven back beyond the Ebro; the Saxon tribes across the Rhine were forced to submit and to accept Christianity; the Lombard oppressors of Italy were vanquished; and on the Pope’s initiative, Charlemagne himself was acclaimed and crowned at Rome as emperor and successor of the Cæsars. All of the West that remained to Byzantium was Southern Italy. The revived empire came into being on Christmas Day, A.D. 800.

The great dominion and the organisation constructed by Charlemagne fell into divisions after his death. The lands east of the Rhine remained German; on the west, the Teutonic forces yielded to the Latinised Celtic spirit. Slowly France and Germany emerged. In England the supremacy among the rival peoples passed from the Angles of Northumbria or of the Midlands to the Saxon house of Wessex. Hungary was held by the Mongolian Avars, presently to be displaced by their Magyar kinsmen; otherwise Eastern Europe, Illyria, as well as the Trans-Danube districts, was being gradually possessed by the Slavonic races. Their westward movement was decisively stayed in the tenth century by Henry the Fowler and Otto the Great, who, for the second time, revived the “Holy Roman Empire” in the West in a form which effectively translated it into the “German Empire.” Meanwhile, the Vikings from the north first ravaged the western coasts, then wrung great provinces from the kings of England, and of “Francia,” preparing for the day when the Norman spirit should set the tone of Western Europe.

Birth of Feudalism in Europe

In the Eastern Mohammedan world the Saracen dominion was passing to Tartar races—to the Seljuk Turks or the Ghaznavid Turks, and later to the Ottomans; the genuine Saracens had seen their greatest days in the times of Harun-al-Raschid, when the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne was being dismembered. Europe in the eleventh century had passed, or was passing, into what is distinctively known as the Feudal Period, or later Middle Ages. Everywhere it became the object of the great rulers to establish a strong central government, and of the Papacy to establish a supremacy over all governments. Feudalism and the Papacy were the rivals of the centralising tendency.

TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: A.D. 500 to 1000

Teutonic Races Dominate the West. Rise of Mohammed: extension of Mohammedan Rule from Cordova to Kabul. Western Empire Revived by Charlemagne and again by Otto

A.D.
 500

The East and Africa

Europe

A.D.
 500

Overthrow of the African Vandal kingdom by Belisarius, general of Justinian.

Franks predominant on Rhine and in Gaul.
Justinian emperor at Constantinople.
Roman Law codified in the Institutes.
Overthrow of Gothic kingdom in Italy by Belisarius.
Advance of Saxons (South) and Angles (East) in England.

 550

 550

Buddhism introduced in Japan.

Advance of Persia against the Eastern Empire.

Lombard conquest of North Italy.
Spread of Celtic Christianity in Britain by St. Columba.
Pontificate of Gregory the Great.
Latin Christianity introduced into Kent by St. Augustine, 597.

 600

 600

Overthrow of Persia by Emperor Heraclius.
MOHAMMED. The Hegira (622).
Conquest of Egypt and Syria by the Caliphs Abu-bekr and Omar.
Conquest of Persia, and extension of Caliphate over West Asia.

ENGLAND: Supremacy of Northumbria.
ITALY: North under Lombard dominion; South attached to the Eastern Empire.
Avar dominion in Hungary.
Slavonic settlement in Servia.

 650

 650

Saracens (Caliphate) attack the Empire in the East and in Africa.
Rise of the Shiite sect of Mohammedans.

ENGLAND: Final overthrow of Paganism.
Triumph of Roman over Celtic Christianity. FRANKS: Dukes of Austrasia (East Franks) dominate the Merovingian kings.

 700

 700

Revival in India of Brahmanism, gradually developing into modern Hinduism.

Saracens (or Moors) overrun Spain.
Saracen advance checked by Emperor Leo the Isaurian at Constantinople, and by Charles Martel at Tours.
Beginning of the Iconoclastic controversy. Discussions between Papacy and Eastern Church.

 750

 750

Division of the Caliphate into Eastern (Abassid) at Bagdad and Western (Ommeiad) at Cordova.
Rise of the Turks in the Caliphate armies.
Harun-al-Raschid Caliph at Bagdad.

ENGLAND: Supremacy of Mercia.
FRANKS: Fall of the Merovingian dynasty.
Pepin the Short founds the Karling or Carolingian Dynasty.
Empress Irene at Constantinople.
FRANKS: Karl the Great (Charlemagne) succeeds Pepin as king of the Franks. He drives the Moors beyond the Ebro, conquers the Lombards, and is crowned as Roman Emperor by the Pope. (800).

 800

 800

Increasing power of the Western Caliphate.

Subjugation of the Saxons by Charlemagne.
Division of Charlemagne’s dominion among his grandsons.
ENGLAND: Supremacy of Wessex under Egbert.
The Danes, or Northmen, harry the coasts of Europe.

 850

 850

Fatemide Mohammedan dynasty established in Egypt.
Decline of the Abassid Caliphs.

Carolingian dominion divided into West (Francia), East (Franconia, Germany), Central (Burgundy) and Italy.
Pressure of Slavonic peoples on East Germany.
ENGLAND: Alfred the Great. Settlement of the Danes in the Danelagh. Organisation of Government, Law, etc.
Advance of Magyars in Hungary.
Iceland colonised, 874–950.

 900

 900

FRANCE: Duchy of Normandy ceded to Rollo.
NORWAY united under Harold Haarfager.
ENGLAND: House of Wessex kings of all England.
GERMANY: Henry the Fowler, Saxon King of Germany, and his son Otto the Great, check the Magyar advance.
Pressure of Slavs on Eastern Empire.

 950

 950

1000
A.D.

Recovery of Eastern Provinces from the Saracens by the Byzantine Empire.

EMPIRE: Otto becomes King of Italy and Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire is from this time definitely German.
FRANCE: The Capet dynasty replaces the Carolingian.
Slavs driven back by Eastern Emperors. Russians Christianised. Slav dominion established in Poland.

1000
A.D.

England and France