Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was a period of European history which began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century CE and lasted through to the end of the tenth century. It was one of the most revolutionary periods of European history, but also one which is comparatively difficult to trace the history of, as government collapses and a breakdown of bureaucratic states means we have markedly few sources to draw on to reconstruct the history of these centuries. So abrupt was the collapse of society at the start of the period that the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries are often referred to as the Dark Ages. Thereafter a gradual rejuvenation of European society began with the Carolingian Renaissance of the late eighth century. The period was marked by extensive migration which changed the demography of Western and Central Europe as Germanic and Asiatic tribes conquered Western Europe in the fifth century, the Muslim Arabs and Berbers conquered much of Iberia and the Mediterranean islands like Sardinia and Sicily in the eighth century, Norse peoples spread out from Scandinavia in the ninth century, and other groups like the Magyars and Slavs settled in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Early Middle Ages chronology of events

The Middle Ages or medieval period is a vast era of European history stretching from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century through to the advent of the Renaissance in the fifteenth, although scholars for several decades now have debated the validity of any such thing as the ‘Middle Ages’ or ‘medieval’ period. Criticisms of the concept of the ‘medieval’ era highlight the fact that this was far from a unified period with common characteristics. Consequently, today there is a much greater tendency to divide the Middle Ages into Early (c. 400 CE – c. 1000 CE), High (c. 1000 CE – 1300 CE) and Late (c. 1300 CE – 1500 CE) periods.

Even within the Early Middle Ages the period can be broken down again into specific eras. For instance, the period from about 400 CE to 700 CE constitutes one distinct period. During this the Western Roman Empire was overrun by Germanic and Asiatic tribes such as the Franks, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Suebi, Burgundians, Angles, Saxons and Vandals which established successor kingdoms in regions like Italy, France, Spain and England. This is often referred to as the Dark Ages as Roman civilization was destroyed and replaced by what is often deemed to be a much more primitive set of kingdoms. In tandem there was a breakdown of law and order, bureaucracy and record-keeping, meaning that while we can piece events during this period together in a broad sense, much of its history is ‘dark’ or ‘hidden’ in the sense that we do not have abundant records with which to shed light on it. Yet there were some bright sparks, notably the development of monasticism as a movement across Europe which sought to restore civility to former parts of the Roman Empire and to preserve the culture of the past by copying out old texts in monastic libraries.

A coin showing Charlemagne from 812

The Dark Ages gave way in the eighth century to a period of rejuvenation and the emergence of a new culture across much of Europe. This was driven in the second half of the century by the expansion of the Carolingian Empire of Charlemagne, who in 800 CE was crowned as the first Holy Roman Emperor, an institution which would last in one form or another for a millennium. Other aspects of this Carolingian Renaissance included the development of Romanesque architecture, while the Carolingian state hired scribes to begin keeping better records.

A third and further development came towards the end of the Early Middle Ages as new invaders arrived again, these hailing from northern Europe in the shape of the Vikings or Norse people of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. These began to settle in large numbers in parts of Britain, Ireland, northern France and indeed down the great rivers of Eastern Europe, the Volga, Don and Dnieper. The latter region had always continued to experience waves of incursions in the shape of the Slavs, Magyars and Bulgars throughout the Early Middle Ages, while in Southern Europe Muslim Arabs and Berbers had invaded the Iberian Peninsula and other parts of the continent such as Sicily and Sardinia.

Extent of migration during the Early Middle Ages

The entire Early Middle Ages was a period of almost ceaseless migration and flux. In many ways what marked the transition to the High Middle Ages in the eleventh century was the end of this migratory period and the emergence of a more stable European culture based to a significant extent on the culture of the Normans of northern France who fanned out to conquer significant tranches of the continent in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Before this could occur waves of migration took place. For instance, England experienced two massive waves of migration during the Early Middle Ages which transformed the demography of the country over time. First, in 410 CE the Romans pulled out of the province as a defensive measure to consolidate control over Gaul. Then waves of Germanic settlers such as the Angles and the Saxons arrived in the fifth and sixth centuries. These created a new society here coming out of the Dark Ages, but they had no sooner begun to acquire stability under small kingdoms like those of Mercia and Wessex, when the Vikings began their raids on northern England in the 790s. Thereafter in the ninth and tenth centuries the region experienced new waves of settlement by what the people of England came to call ‘the Danes’, Norse settlers from Denmark and Norway. Migratory patterns like this occurred all over Europe between the fifth and tenth centuries.

Demographic impact of the Early Middle Ages

The demographic impact of these waves of migration during the Early Middle Ages was transformative. They fundamentally changed the ethnic composition of the continent. Take the example of England again. The conquest of southern Britain by the Romans in the first century CE had created a hybrid Romano-Briton society comprised of Celtic Britons and Roman settlers and their descendants. But this picture was massively complicated during the Early Middle Ages. First, groups like the Angles and Saxons invaded and conquered much of the island in the fifth and sixth centuries and then the Danes arrived in great numbers in the ninth century. The result, by the end of the Early Middle Ages was a society which was a complex mix of Celtic Briton, Roman, Anglo-Saxon Germanic and Norse cultures and ethnicities, with more to come in the shape of the Normans in the eleventh century.

The Magyar Conquest by Mihály Munkácsy (1893)

Similar patterns were evident elsewhere on the continent. Iberia was broadly populated by a mix of pre-Roman Celts, Romans and Carthaginian-Phoenicians in late antiquity, but in the Early Middle Ages this ethnic soup was further complicated by the arrival of groups like the Vandals, Suebi and Visigoths in the fifth and sixth centuries, followed by the Muslim Berbers and Arabs in the eighth and even some Franks into the north of the peninsula in the ninth century. National identities were formed in the process. The Magyars, for instance, are seen as the major forbear of modern Hungarians after settling in the Carpathian Basin in the ninth century. The Slavs who settled across much of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans from the sixth century onwards are recognized as the demographic basis for the native peoples of countries like Poland, Serbia and Croatia across the region today. Often the extent of the demographic change is impossible to establish with any precision owing to the lack of records. For instance, while some studies argue that approximately 200,000 Magyars settled in the region around modern-day Hungary, it is difficult to say for sure.

See also

• Fall of the Roman Empire
• Viking Age

Explore more about the Early Middle Ages

• In Defence of the Dark Ages at The Critic
• Migration Age at World History Encyclopedia
• The genetic origin of Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians at ScienceDirect

References

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