Medieval
The Prince-Bishop
The Prince-Bishop Albero of Trier Archbishop Albero von Montreuil – Archbishop of Trier in Lorraine from 1131 to 1152 – was an energetic Prince-Bishop involved in the Church reform, imperial politics and territorial rule. This Prince-Prelate often worked with Pope Innocent II, Pope Eugene II and St. Bernard of Clairvaux to defend the independence of the Church. He clashed with…
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Feudalism in England
The Norman conquest of England introduced feudalism to these islands with several modifications, some apparently intended to improve on the system operating in Normandy, others as the result of the adoption of existing Saxon instruments of government. Of the 5,000 or so knights who formed the expeditionary force, only about…
Feudalism in Germany
In Germany feudalism was established later than in France. The Norsemen only attacked the area of the lower Rhine, and the period of their raids was relatively short. The greater danger came from the Magyars and Slavs along the eastern borders. Although their raids influenced the development of serfdom and…
Feudalism
The ‘Feudal System’ in England, as it is taught in schools, seems fairly simple and consistent, the result of the imposition by a small conquering minority of a system already developed beyond these shores, and modified even as it was imposed. But even in England it was extremely complex, developing…
Sicily between Byzantium and the Islamic World
The Hariri Ship, the first known picture of an Arab sailing vessel. Map of the Arab–Byzantine naval conflict in the Mediterranean, 7th–11th centuries. Map of southern Italy in the 10th century. Byzantine provinces (themes) in yellow, Lombard principalities in other colours. Afterwards, the Saracens who had sailed from Rome came…
The Serbian Grand Principality (Kingdom from 1346)
Detail of fresco depicting Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan. Painted in the mid-14th century. Restorated (coloured). Lesnovo Monastery, Republic of Macedonia. Serbian Empire, 1355 Serbia had the Adriatic Sea to the west, Hungary to the north and Bulgaria to the east. Stefan divided his principality between his five sons when he…
Medieval Scotland: Kings and Bishops I
Church and State The political changes that led to the foundation of medieval Scotland at the end of the first millennium began several centuries earlier. Gaelicisation of the Picts, for example, was not so much a ninth-century event as a process of interaction and assimilation which accelerated under the mac…