Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
Five centuries between Rome and the High Middle Ages: Justinian’s reconquest and plague, the Lombards and Avars, the Arab sieges of Constantinople and the conquest of Spain, Charlemagne’s empire and its partition, the Vikings and Magyars, the conversion of the Slavs, and the new Christian kingdoms of the year 1000.
45 events · 4 regions · Western and Central Europe, Balkans and Anatolia, Africa, North America
The thread opens with the last attempt to restore the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean. Justinian’s armies retook Africa and Italy, his lawyers codified Roman law and his architects built Hagia Sophia, but the plague of the 540s and two decades of war left Italy exhausted, and the Lombards and Avars soon filled the vacuum. In the 7th and 8th centuries Constantinople withstood the Avars and Persians and then two great Arab sieges, while in the West the Umayyads conquered the Visigothic kingdom of Spain.
In the 8th century the papacy turned from Byzantium to the Franks. The alliance of the popes and the Carolingians produced the Papal States and, on Christmas Day 800, a new Western emperor. Charlemagne’s empire did not outlive his grandsons: the Treaty of Verdun (843) divided it into the kingdoms from which France and Germany would grow, and Vikings, Magyars and Arab raiders struck a fragmented Latin West.
The 9th and 10th centuries were also an age of conversion and state-building. Byzantine missionaries gave the Slavs an alphabet and a written language; Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and Iceland accepted Christianity; Otto I renewed the Western empire in 962; Hugh Capet founded the dynasty that would rule France. By the year 1000 the map of Christian Europe had taken a shape recognizable for centuries to come — and Norse sailors had reached the shores of North America.
Events
- Benedict of Nursia founds Monte Cassinobetween 529 and 530 · Western and Central Europe
- Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Vandalic WarJune 533 – March 534 · Africa
- Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554 · Western and Central Europe
- Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
- The Avars settle in the Carpathian Basinbetween 567 and 568 · Western and Central Europe
- Lombard invasion of Italy2 April 568 – 572 · Western and Central Europe
- Gregorian mission to the Anglo-Saxons597 · Western and Central Europe
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Founding of the First Bulgarian Empirebetween 680 and 681 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Umayyad conquest of Hispania711–718 · Western and Central Europe
- Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Covadongabetween 718 and 722 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Tours10 October 732 · Western and Central Europe
- Donation of PepinApril 754 – 756 · Western and Central Europe
- Siege of Pavia and fall of the Lombard kingdomSeptember 773 – June 774 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Roncevaux Pass15 August 778 · Western and Central Europe
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Council of Nicaea24 September – 23 October 787 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Saxon Wars772–804 · Western and Central Europe
- Viking raid on Lindisfarne8 June 793 · Western and Central Europe
- Coronation of Charlemagne25 December 800 · Western and Central Europe
- Treaty of VerdunAugust 843 · Western and Central Europe
- Christianization of Bulgaria864 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Great Heathen Army in England865–878 · Western and Central Europe
- Mission of Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia863 – 6 April 885 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of EdingtonMay 878 · Western and Central Europe
- Viking siege of Parisbetween 24 November and 25 November 885 – October 886 · Western and Central Europe
- Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basinbetween 894 and 895 – 907 · Western and Central Europe
- Founding of Cluny Abbeybetween 909 and 910 · Western and Central Europe
- Golden Age of Bulgaria under Simeon I893 – 27 May 927 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte911 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Achelous20 August 917 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Abd al-Rahman III proclaims the Caliphate of Córdoba16 January 929 · Western and Central Europe
- First Althing at Þingvellir930 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Lechfeld10–12 August 955 · Western and Central Europe
- Imperial coronation of Otto I2 February 962 · Western and Central Europe
- Baptism of Poland14 April 966 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of the Gates of Trajan17 August 986 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Hugh Capet becomes King of the FranksMay 987 – 3 July 987 · Western and Central Europe
- Christianization of Icelandbetween 999 and 1000 · Western and Central Europe
- Leif Erikson reaches Vinlandc. 1000 · North America
- Coronation of Stephen I of Hungarybetween 25 December 1000 and 1 January 1001 · Western and Central Europe
Key participants
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Early Middle Ages
- Wikipedia (Russian): Раннее Средневековье
- Wickham C. The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000. — London: Allen Lane, 2009.
- McKitterick R. (ed.) The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 2: c. 700 – c. 900. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- История Европы. Т. 2: Средневековая Европа. — М.: Наука, 1992.
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