HIST 203
Syllabus
Weekly lecture Outlines
Some primary sources for research papers
Week 9: Tuesday
Videos:
The Story of Beowulf, by Michael Wood (59:13 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C0sFXU0SLo
The Story of English: episode 2, The Mother Tongue (Robert MacNeil, Part 1, 9:18 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UG6vHXArlk&index=1&list=PLCF16776907155D79 (with remaining segments of this episode)
The Lord’s Prayer in Old English (West Saxon dialect, 0:49 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW3cWDtJOR4
The Lord’s Prayer in Old English (Mercian dialect, 0:28 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYQoEcygK3Y
The Lord’s Prayer in Old English (Northumbrian dialect, 0:26 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6p2xi4Gu0g&feature=related
Anglo-Saxon poem “Deor” accompanied by lyre (6:56 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ZvjTHpb1A&index=3&list=PL9N3V29cwwGUn14QcaBNvxy2YLb1kPTyL
ENGLAND: A period of unification
| by late 8th C. | 4 major kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex |
| 9th-11th C. | Wessex dominant |
| 793 | Viking attacks begin; Lindisfarne sacked |
| 865-870 | Viking army invades and conquers Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia |
| 871-899 | Alfred the Great of Wessex. Achievements include:
|
| 899-978 | Alfred’s successors reconquer and rule all of England |
| 978-1016 | Æthelred II “Unraed” (“the Unready” or “the Redeless” = “the Ill-Advised”) renewed Viking attacks (including Battle of Maldon, 991) |
| 1002 | St. Brice’s Day massacre |
| 1013-14 | Æthelred expelled by Swegn of Denmark; flees to Normandy |
| 1017-1035 | Swegn’s son Cnut (or Canute), king of Denmark, Norway, and England; marries Emma of Normandy, widow of Æthelred II |
FRANCE: A period of fragmentation
| 9th C. | Viking raids |
| c. 890-955 | Magyar raids |
| 911 | Rollo given Normandy |
| 10th C. | Disintegration of monarchy; rise of vassalage or “feudalism;” castle-building |
| 987 | Last Carolingian king (Louis V “the Sluggard”) dies; Hugh Capet, count of Paris, is elected king |
| late 10th C. | “Peace of God” proclaimed |
Terms:
- Fief (or fee; Latin feudum)
- Lord
- Liege lord
- Vassal
- Homage
- Fealty
- Manor
- Peasant
- Serf (or villein)
- Knight (click here for a photo of an early stirrup)
- Motte-and-bailey castle
- Castellan
Thursday:
Videos:
BBC documentary: The Viking Sagas (59 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taVsvYWp1UU&list=RDXOEAkRsOoFs&index=2
GERMANY: Fragmentation and unification
| Early 900s | Germany (East Francia) dominated by 5 duchies: Saxony, Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, and Lorraine. Last Carolingian king, Louis the Child, dies in 911, and Conrad I, Duke of Franconia is elected. At his death in 919 the crown passes to his brother, Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony (919-936), whose descendants rule Germany (and, from 962, N. Italy) until 1002. |
| 936-973 | Otto I (“the Great”) of Saxony (son of Henry the Fowler) has 3 main goals:
(click here for a map of the empire at Otto’s death) He also:
|
| 973-1002 | Otto II (973-983) and Otto III (983-1002): both die young |
ITALY: Rise of city-states
| late 800s | Collapse of Carolingian control over N. Italy |
| early 900s |
Counts and dukes control countryside, but bishops control cities (click here for a 9th-cent. fresco from the Oratory of San Benedetto, Malles Venosta, perhaps showing a benefactor of the church) |
| 951 | Beginning of German rule, under Otto I (see map), but Ottonians never establish administrative structure in Italy, relying instead on unstable loyalties of nobles and bishops and popes |
| late 900s | Rise of Italian mercantile cities:
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