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Medieval Europe - The Frontier
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An introduction to the idea of "The Frontier", and how Frontier societies differed from those in the heart of Europe because of their interactions with other cultures.
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The Frontier in Medieval Europe‘Latin Christendom’, c. 900 AD.
In the next 400 years, the borders expanded to the North, to Scandinavia and northern
Scotland; to the East, through Germany and much of the later eastern European countries,
including Hungary, Poland, etc – up to the borders of Lithuania. To the South, Spain was
almost entirely controlled by Christians, barring the Muslim Caliphate of Granada. Sicily,
Corsica and Sardinia, as well as the Balearics, Cyprus and Crete are all in Latin
Christendom. At times, even the Middle East has been in Latin European control, and Genoa
holds a portion of land off Crimea.
The Foundations of Change
Population: Grows x2 – x3 between c. 1000-14th century.
France itself grew from 5 million inhabitants to 15 million.
Also;
- Transformation of countryside.
- Political consolidation.
- Urbanisation.
- Monetarisation.
All helped to expand the borders of Latin Christendom.
Settlement Frontiers
Spain – from 1050. Spanish Christians reinforced from beyond the Pyrenees.
Holy Land.
Southern Italy and Sicily.
‘Eastern Europe’ (east of Germany).
Ireland, Northern England/Scotland and Wales (mostly migrants from England –
warriors and some townspeople).
England itself was colonised in 1066 by French-speaking invaders.
But the map does not show everything. It does not, for example, show trading bases of
Italian cities, and the frontier is too discrete. In a sense it is everywhere. It also gives no
indication of the character and intensity of settlement in the zones shown, and on the fringes
(differing types of frontier).
The point is that expansion was a process – extending in many cases over several
centuries, like Spain or Wales, where the northern heartlands held out until nearly the end of
the period, but some parts taken straight after 1066.
1st Crusade – incl. Jerusalem fell under the rule of mainly French-speaking princes.
Southern Italy – a real mix of people, including Muslims colonised by the Normans.
Eastern Europe – German speaking settlers arrived from Baltic -> Balkans; some military
crusades against Pagans.
Poland, Bohemia, Hungary etc already Christian-ruled. Settlement was peaceful, invited in
by rulers as peasants, aristocrats and tradesmen.
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