"Dark" Western Europe in the Middle Ages

Europe is called the Middle Ages from 500 A.D. to 1500 A.D. and has always been regarded as the darkest period in Europe. The invasion and settlement of barbarians caused the collapse of the Roman Empire and almost caused the complete destruction of European culture at that time. In this context, the feudal system in western Europe was produced and developed on the ruins after the fall of Rome through the integration of Germanic, Roman and Christian factors. Chivalry system also came into being in medieval Europe, which was a feudal vassal system gradually produced and established in the process of feudalization in Europe. European countries in the Middle Ages were a loose collection of territories. In a country, emperors, kings, dukes, etc. Are the supreme lords, and other big noble swore allegiance to them in exchange for fiefs-"fiefs", thus becoming vassals of the supreme lords. These vassals can have their own vassals until knights with little or no land, thus forming a complete feudal hierarchy in Western Europe.

The Middle Ages in Western Europe are generally regarded as a period of cultural decline, even a period of "darkness", and the reasons for this "darkness" and "cultural retrogression" are entirely attributed to the Christian church. In fact, in the early Middle Ages of Western Europe (5- 1 1 century), church activities made great contributions to the development of Western European culture under specific historical conditions. Christianity is a classical culture.

Modern Europe has become the locomotive of world progress, and the modern civilization born from modern Europe has influenced the trend of modern world history with its great influence. The concepts of human rights, democracy, rule of law, harmony and science have been widely accepted in the world today. Great geographical discoveries have brought the world closer together, and the eastern and western worlds have since become an inseparable whole. Modern European civilization developed on the soil of medieval Europe. The Middle Ages in Europe is a unique historical period. The Germanic kingdoms, which grew up from the ruins of the Roman Empire, gradually merged Germanic and Roman factors and formed a unique series of systems contained in the feudal system in Western Europe.

First, the formation of feudal system in Western Europe

In 476 AD, the last Roman emperor was abolished by the Germans, and the Western Roman Empire finally perished under the invasion of barbarians. Many Germanic countries were established on the land of the former Western Roman Empire, and the feudal system in Western Europe developed under this background.

After the Franks entered Gaul, they confiscated the land of the Roman royal family and some slave owners and distributed it to the Franks' Kyle Commune. Many of them were also occupied by the king of Morovin dynasty and his soldiers, becoming a new feudal landlord class. As Franks continued to conquer new areas, kings presented the newly conquered land and its people to his subordinates, bishops and abbots, which was called "land donation". As a result of this unrestricted land grant, the local big noble's strength continued to increase, which ultimately greatly weakened the kingship, making successive kings of Mai Tam dynasty gradually become symbolic "* * * lords". When Charles Martel of Caroline family served as a court minister, she began to implement the fief system for the sake of the long-term stability of the Frankish country and for the sake of consolidating her own strength. Charles Martel took the confiscated land of rebel nobles and churches as fiefs and distributed it to nobles and churches. The recipient of the fief must provide cavalry service to the giver and swear allegiance to him; The giver of the fief has the obligation to protect the receiver from others. Feudal enfeoffment is limited to life and cannot be inherited.

In a sense, the feudal system in western Europe was developed by Franks during this period, and the "fief" system played a fundamental and decisive role.

The system of "fief" developed greatly during the period of Charlemagne. During this period, in addition to the old custom of the king, the earl, the earl of Mark and the duke who used to belong to state officials also became the vassals of the king and accepted the king's fiefs. At this time, fiefs gradually became hereditary. The king's bannermen can also absorb their own bannermen and give them some land as fiefs, thus becoming their bannermen again. After the 9th century, the word "fief" gradually replaced "fief"; It's called a pink map in the future. The king is the highest feudal Lord, under which there are big feudal lords such as duke, earl and bishop, and then there are small and medium feudal lords, thus forming a complete feudal hierarchy in Western Europe.

The medieval country was a loose land collection, and there was no clear concept of national boundaries. "Its property rights and sovereignty are mutually transformed everywhere" [1]

The feudal system in Europe is a system of political and economic integration. The feudal lords first clearly owned the ownership of the land in their fiefs, and then gradually acquired the local power of the kingship after the decline of the kingship, and transformed it into private power inherited with the fiefs, including administrative, judicial, taxation, coinage and other powers. Tracing the origin of European feudalism includes three main factors: Roman civilization, Germanic tradition and the influence of Christianity.

Note: ostrogoths, Visigoths and Vandals brought great pain to the Roman Empire, and in the context of migration and settlement, they brought the destruction of civilization to the Empire. Finally, they established a big country on the territory of ancient Rome. Brought centuries of chaos to western Europe.