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The High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1300) did not begin abruptly. It emerged gradually from the conditions of the Early Middle Ages through a long series of political, economic, demographic, religious, and cultural transformations. To understand the period is to understand the deep processes that ended the disorders of the ninth and tenth centuries and laid the foundations for the dynamic, expansive world of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries.
This cluster explores the origins of the High Middle Ages, the transitions from the early medieval world, and the key turning points that historians have identified as the beginning of the new era. The articles in the related long-tail pages provide deeper examinations of specific aspects of the period.
The periodisation c. 1000–1300 is a working tool, not a line on the ground; R. I. Moore (“The First European Revolution, c. 970–1215,” 2000) argues that the eleventh and twelfth centuries should be read as a single revolution in the relations of Church, kingship, and peasantry, while Georges Duby and the Annales school prefer to date the “turn” of the medieval economy to a much later point. Both readings have merit. The page that follows uses the textbook dates but flags the points at which the working chronology breaks down.
The End of the Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages is conventionally dated from the deposition of the last Roman emperor in the West in 476 to the period of the tenth or eleventh century. It was an age of migration, invasion, and political fragmentation in Western Europe, but it was also a period of profound transformation in which the foundations of medieval Europe were laid.
The invasions of the ninth and tenth centuries are often seen as the defining experience of the Early Middle Ages. The Vikings struck from Scandinavia, raiding and settling across northern Europe, from Ireland and the British Isles to the rivers of Russia. The Magyars swept across central Europe from the Hungarian plain, reaching as far as the Rhineland and northern Italy. The Saracens raided the Mediterranean coasts, threatening Rome itself. The cumulative effect of these pressures was a period of political instability, economic disruption, and demographic decline that made the tenth century one of the most difficult periods of European history.
By the end of the tenth century, however, the situation had begun to change. The Vikings were converting to Christianity and settling into land-holding societies; the Battle of Edington in 878 had marked the beginning of the end of Viking power in England, and the establishment of the duchy of Normandy in 911 had provided a model for the integration of Viking settlers into Christian European society. The Magyars were defeated at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 and gradually converted to Christianity, becoming the kingdom of Hungary. The Saracens were gradually pushed back from the Mediterranean by the emerging naval powers of Italy and southern France.
The decline of the Carolingian Empire had left a fragmented political landscape in Western Europe. The empire had been divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 into three kingdoms, and the successors of Charlemagne had struggled to maintain imperial authority. By the late ninth century, the empire had fragmented into a number of smaller kingdoms and principalities, and the imperial title had lapsed in the West. The new imperial line, the Ottonian dynasty, revived the empire in the late tenth century, but the political reality was one of local and regional power, not centralized imperial authority.
Key Turning Points
Historians have identified several turning points that signal the beginning of the period. None of them is a single event that can be precisely dated, but together they mark a series of changes that transformed the European world.
The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 is often cited as a key turning point. The conquest brought a new ruling class to England, established a centralized royal administration, and accelerated the development of English common law. The Norman kingdom of England became one of the most centralized and best-governed states in Europe, and the Norman culture — combining French, English, and Scandinavian elements — would shape the development of medieval Europe for centuries.
The Gregorian Reform of the papacy, beginning in the mid-eleventh century, was another key turning point. The reform movement, named after Pope Gregory VII, sought to free the Church from secular control and to enforce higher standards of clerical life. The Investiture Controversy that followed pitted the papacy against the German empire and led to a series of dramatic confrontations, including the famous humiliation of Emperor Henry IV at Canossa in 1077.
The First Crusade, proclaimed by Pope Urban II at Clermont in 1095, was a third major turning point. The call to crusade was a defining moment in the history of the papacy, the chivalric class, and the relationship between Christendom and the wider world. The success of the First Crusade in capturing Jerusalem in 1099 and establishing the Crusader States in the Levant was a major demonstration of the new military and religious energy of the period.
The founding of the Cistercian Order at Cîteaux in 1098 and the founding of the Premonstratensian Order in 1120 were signs of the new religious enthusiasm of the period. The new orders sought a stricter observance than the older Benedictine and Cluniac houses, and they played a major role in the religious and economic life of the age.
The founding of the University of Bologna in the late eleventh century and the founding of the University of Paris in the early twelfth were signs of the new intellectual energy of the period. The universities would become the major centers of intellectual life in medieval Europe, and they would shape the development of European thought for centuries.
The Chronology of the High Middle Ages
The chronology of the High Middle Ages is conventionally divided into three broad periods: the eleventh century (c. 1000–1100), the twelfth century (c. 1100–1200), and the thirteenth century (c. 1200–1300). Each period had its own character, and each produced major developments in politics, economics, religion, and culture.
The eleventh century was the period of the Norman expansion, the Gregorian Reform, the First Crusade, and the early growth of towns and trade. The Norman principalities of southern Italy and Sicily, the Norman kingdom of England, and the Norman presence in Antioch and Edessa all contributed to a new pattern of political and military expansion. The Investiture Controversy dominated the politics of the German Empire, and the papacy emerged as a major political force.
The twelfth century was the period of the great intellectual and cultural flowering that would later be called the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. The scholastic method was developed, the Aristotelian works were translated and studied, the Gothic style emerged in the Ile-de-France, the troubadour tradition flourished in southern France, and the Arthurian legends took literary form. The Cistercian Order expanded across Europe, the military religious orders were founded, and the papal monarchy reached the height of its power under Innocent III.
The thirteenth century was the period of the high medieval synthesis. The Gothic style reached its mature form, the scholastic philosophy of Thomas Aquinas integrated Aristotle with Christian theology, the mendicant orders of Franciscans and Dominicans transformed the religious life of Europe, and the Italian city-states and the Hanseatic League dominated the commerce of Europe. The Magna Carta of 1215 and the confrontations between popes and emperors in the late thirteenth century signaled the beginning of a new period of political tension.
The Geography of the High Middle Ages
The medieval period was an age of expanding geographical horizons. The crusading movement brought Europeans into contact with the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic world, and the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean. The Reconquista brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Christian rule. The Ostsiedlung — the great German, Flemish, and Dutch settlement of eastern Europe — transformed the demographic and political map of central Europe.
The Italian maritime republics of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa dominated Mediterranean trade, while the Hanseatic League of northern German towns dominated the trade of the Baltic and the North Sea. The Silk Road trade from the East continued to bring Asian goods to the Mediterranean, and the Italian merchants were major intermediaries in this trade.
The kingdoms of the High Middle Ages took recognizable form during this period. France under the Capetian dynasty, England under the Norman and Plantagenet kings, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire under the Salian and Hohenstaufen emperors, the Christian kingdoms of Spain, the Norman kingdom of Sicily, and the emerging kingdoms of Poland, Hungary, and Scandinavia all developed the political, legal, and administrative institutions that would shape them for centuries.
The End of the High Middle Ages
The end of the High Middle Ages is conventionally placed in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. The Great Famine of 1315–1317 marked the end of a period of abundant harvests, and the Black Death that arrived in 1347 killed perhaps a third of Europe’s population. The Hundred Years’ War between England and France, the Babylonian Captivity of the papacy at Avignon, and the Great Schism that followed all contributed to a sense that an age had ended.
Yet the legacy of the High Middle Ages was enormous. The institutions of the period — the universities, the guilds, the common law, the Gothic cathedrals, the papal monarchy — would shape the development of Europe for centuries. The languages of the period — French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, and many others — emerged in recognizable form during this period. The legal traditions of Roman and canon law, the literary traditions of the troubadours, and the philosophical traditions of the scholastics all became central to the development of Western civilization.
Sources
Principal sources used in this article:
- R. I. Moore, The First European Revolution, c. 970–1215 (Blackwell, 2000).
Further reading:
- Pierre Riché, Les Carolingiens (PUF, 1983).
For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).