A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

Pisa Cathedral Campanile (12th–14th cent.): :this dramatic view of the belfry, or “leaning tower” of the Pisan cathedral complex ...

Part II ...

The European Take-Off ...

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Five The Expansion of Europe (c.1050–c.1150) Europeans flexed their muscles in the second half of the eleventh century. They bui ...

1060s they fought numerous indecisive battles with the Seljuks. Then in 1071 a huge Byzantine force met an equally large Seljuk ...

Genealogy 5.1: The Early Seljuks The Seljuks of Anatolia set up their own sultanate and were effectively independent of the Grea ...

regional principality centered on Damascus. He was, however, ousted by a son of Alp Arslan, Tutush I, in 1078. Atsiz was born a ...

meanwhile, in the Balkans, the Turkic Pechenegs raided with ease. The Normans, some of whom (as we saw on p. 130) had establishe ...

Genealogy 5.2: The Comnenian Dynasty Altogether, Byzantine rulers were becoming more like European ones, holding a relatively sm ...

like fiefs, spending most of their time in battle to secure a stronghold here, a city there. Meanwhile, Western rulers were beco ...

Churches and monasteries were the other centers of town growth. Recall Tours as it had been in the early seventh century (Map 1. ...

Map 5.2: Tours in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries Early cities developed without prior planning, but some later ones were “ch ...

settlement were already in place at Freiburg im Breisgau when the duke of Zähringen chartered it, promising each new settler the ...

demand because they supplied fine wines, spices, and fabrics to the aristocracy. Some Jews had long been involved at least part ...

Plate 5.1: San Miniato Cathedral (late 12th cent.). The façade of the cathedral of the town of San Miniato was once decorated wi ...

Plate 5.2: Bowl, North Africa (late 12th cent.). This earthenware bowl (bacino), imported from North Africa and decorated with p ...

with the interest on loans hidden in the fiction of a penalty for “late payment” in order to avoid the church’s ban on usury. Po ...

customary taxes while granting them the right to “appoint as sheriff from themselves whomsoever they may choose, and [they] shal ...

Cluny’s prestige was great because of the influence of its founders, the status of Saint Peter, and the fame of the monastery’s ...