Page images
PDF
EPUB

II. MEDIEVAL HISTORY.

FIRST PERIOD.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE MIGRATIONS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES TO THE TREATY OF VERDUN1 (375-843).

§ 1. MIGRATIONS OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES. Habitations of the Germanic tribes in the fourth century A. D, Alani, whose German descent is, however, not certain, on the lower Volga; East Goths in southern Russia; West Goths in Dacia (eastern Hungary, Roumania); Vandals in Pannonia (southwestern Hungary); Suevi in Moravia, Bohemia, and Bavaria; Burgundians on the Neckar and the Rhine, with Worms as their capital (compare p. 164); Alamanni (or Alemanni) on the Rhine, between the Main and the Alps, partly along the Roman boundary wall (agri decumates); Ripuarian Franks on both sides of the lower Rhine (capital at Colonia Agrippina); Salic Franks on the mouths of the Rhine (in Meergau, "district on the sea," the Meruwe, hence Merowingians ;)2 Saxons from the Elbe almost to the Rhine; Thuringians south of the Saxons; Langobards on the lower Elbe.

The peoples which appear in the so-called migrations of the peoples were generally heterogeneous armed bands under the command of a leader or king chosen for his military prowess (Heerkönig).

375. Beginning of the migration of the Teutonic tribes.

Period of migrations and invasions.

The Huns, a Mongolian race, crossed the Volga.
The Huns, joined by the Alani, whom they had defeated, fell upon
the East Goths (king Ermanaric or Hermanric, of the family
of the Amali), and, in union with these, upon the West Goths.
That part of the West Gothic race which had remained heathen
took refuge in the Carpathians; the Christians, and those who

8

1 Assmann, Geschichte des Mittelalters, 2d edition, by E. Meyer.

2 According to other scholars the name was a patronymic.

8 A Gothic bishop (Theophilus) took part in the council of Nicea (325). Wulfila (Ulfilas), bishop of the West Goths (348-388), translator of the Bible; cf. Dahn, Die Könige der Germanen, VI. 41.

were just on the point of accepting Christianity (in the form of Arianism), were allotted habitations in Masia by the emperor Valens. Disputes with the Roman officials at the passage of the Danube (Fridigern, leader of the West Goths) led to war, and the Goths advanced, ravaging as they went.

378. Battle of Adrianople. Valens defeated and slain. His successor, Theodosius, made peace with the West Goths, who, for pay and the gift of a dwelling-place, were to protect the frontiers of the Roman Empire as fœderati.

Alaric, leader of the West Goths, belonging to the family of the Balthi (i. e. "bold") enraged at not receiving pay from Arcadius, laid waste Macedonia, Illyria, and Greece (395), and advanced into Peloponnesus. Stilicho, magister utriusque militiæ of the Western Empire (p. 161), came to the assistance of the Eastern court. Landing with an army at Corinth he surrounded the West Goths, but allowed them to escape. Alaric went to Illyria, and compelled the court at Byzantium to recognize him as dux in Illyricum orientale.

400 (401 ?). Alaric's first invasion of Italy. After a victory at Aquileia he crossed the Po. Stilicho hastened from Rætia to meet him.

402. Drawn battle at Pollentia. Alaric made another attempt to advance southward, but was compelled to return to Illyria by disease, hunger, and desertion.

404-406. German bands under Radagais invaded Italy, but were defeated by Stilicho at Fœsulæ, and annihilated by continued fighting and by hunger.

406-409. Bands of Vandals, Suevi, and Alani left the regions along the Danube, crossed the Rhine, sustained great loss in contests with the Franks, and finally (409) invaded Spain.

Foundation of Teutonic monarchies in Roman territory. The Salian Franks gradually occupied northern Gaul. The Burgundians settled (406-413) on the middle Rhine (Worms). 408. Stilicho murdered by the command of the emperor Honorius (p. 161).

Alaric's second invasion of Italy. He besieged Rome, but retired on receipt of a ransom. The court at Ravenna refusing to grant Alaric's request that the Goths should be assigned lands for a permanent settlement in northern Italy, Alaric again advanced upon Rome, and forced the senate to appoint Attalus, prefect of the city, emperor. Alaric besieged Honorius in Ravenna without success, quarrelled with Attalus, whom he deposed, and advanced for the third time upon Rome.

410. Capture and sack of Rome by Alaric. Alaric went to Lower Italy with the intention of crossing to Sicily, and thence to Africa, but died at the close of 410, at Cosenza, and was buried beneath the Busento.

410-415. Athaulf, brother of Alarie's wife, led the West Goths to Gaul, though whether in fulfilment of a treaty with Honorius

to resist the Romans, who had forced their way into the province, or of his own accord, is uncertain. He carried with him the sister of Honorius, who was detained as a hostage in the Gothic camp, and married her in Narbonne (414). The proposed treaty with the imperial court was not, however, concluded. Athaulf, hard pressed by the imperial general Constantius, went to Spain, conquered Barcelona, and was murdered (415). After the murder of his successor, Sigric, 415-419. Walja became king of the West Goths. He concluded a treaty with Honorius, and fought for Rome against Vandals, Alani, and Suevi. He received a grant of southern Gaul under

Roman supremacy. Walja was the founder of the

415-507. West Gothic (Visigothic) kingdom of Tolosa, with its capital at Tolosa (Toulouse), which soon became independent.1 429. King Genseric (Geiseric) conducted the Vandals and a portion of the Alani to Africa, at the invitation, as the story goes,2 of the Roman governor Bonifacius. The latter was slandered at court by Aetius, and accused of treason, but, making his peace with Placidia, the mother and guardian of the Emperor Valentinian III., he fought unsuccessfully against Genseric, who, after a short peace with the Romans (435), conquered Carthage (439).

429-534. Kingdom of the Vandals in Africa. Capital, Carthage (S. Augustinus, bishop of Hippo Regius † 430). 440. The Vandals, having created a great naval power, plundered the coasts of Sicily and lower Italy, by their fleets.

443. The Burgundians settled on the upper Rhône and on the Saône; the Alamanni extended themselves over the Roman province of Germania superior (hence called Alsace), and also occupied a part of Switzerland, east of the Burgundian territory.

449. The Angles and Saxons, long known as pirates along the coasts of the German Ocean, and having settlements on the coast of Flanders (litus Saxonicum 3), were called in by the Britons, after the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain, to assist them in repelling the robber tribes of the northern mountains, the Picts and Scots. The Saxons and Angles crossed to Britain (according to tradition, the first bands were led by Hengist and Horsa), and founded in the course of time 8 states: Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia, Deira, Bernicia. The last two were later united to form Northumbria (north of the Humber); hence the number of states was then 7 (heptarchy).

The Britons for the most part migrated to Wales, and to Ar-
morica in Gaul, which was hence called Bretagne (Brittany).
For the details of the settlements, see p. 176.

1 Cf. Dahn, Die Könige der Germanen, Pt. V.
2 This is denied by the more recent authorities.
See, however, p. 38.

451. Attila (Etzel, “Scourge of God"), king of the Huns (in his train armed bands of Germanic peoples, whom he had subjected, East Goths, Gepida, etc.), invaded and ravaged Gaul. He besieged Orléans in vain.

Battle on the Catalaunian fields (near Châlons-sur-Marne; the battle-field itself was at Troyes). Attila defeated by Aetius, the Roman governor of the small district around Lutetia, which alone remained in possession of the Romans, and the West Goths (with the aid of auxiliaries from the Franks, Burgundians, etc.). Theodoric I., king of the West Goths, fell in the battle. 452. Attila went to Italy, destroyed Aquileia. Venice founded by Italian fugitives. Rome saved by Bishop Leo (?). After the death of Attila (453) the monarchy of the Huns fell asunder.

Not only the German tribes which had been subjugated by the Huns became free (the Gepida were the first to shake off the yoke); the Slavic peoples also regained their liberty. During the following centuries these latter tribes extended themselves throughout the eastern parts of Germany.

455. Rome, after the murder of Valentinian III., by Maximus, plundered for 14 days by the Vandals, who had been called in by Eudoxia, widow of Valentinian.

The Vandals controlled the entire northern coast of Africa as far as Cyrene, and the islands of the western Mediterranean.

476.

Odovakar (Odoacer), leader of Herulian and other German bands in the pay of Rome, became ruler in Italy, after the deposition of the last emperor of the West (p. 162).

There was no conquest of the western empire by Odovakar, but the line of Emperors in the West came to an end in consequence of domestic revolution, and thereby the last bond was broken which had united the provinces, long since occupied by the barbarians, who, however, had usually nominally recognized the supremacy of the Imperator or Augustus in Ravenna.

486. Battle of Soissons. The Merowingian Chlodwig (Chlodowech, Clovis, 481-511), leader of the Salic Franks, defeated the Roman governor Syagrius, the successor of Aëtius.

Kingdom of the Franks in northern Gaul. Chlodwig by cruelty and deceit made himself sole ruler of all the Franks.

496. Victory of Chlodwig over the Alamanni (not at Tolbiacum or Zülpich). Conversion of Chlodwig and the Franks to Catholic Christianity. Chlodwig baptized by Remigius,

1 Assmann, I. 53.

bishop of Rheims (Mitis depone colla Sigamber, adora quod incendisti, incende quod adorasti).

493. Theodoric the Great (493-526), after having defeated Odovakar, with whom he had been at war since 489, founded the

493-555. Kingdom of the East Goths (Ostrogoths) in Italy.

Residence Ravenna, at times Verona, hence in the hero romances: Dietrich von Bern. The historian Cassiodorus, Boëthius (de consolatione philosophia), and Symmachus, executed (525). 500. Chlodwig, king of the Franks, attacked the Burgundians, to revenge himself on Gundobad, the uncle of his wife Chlotilde, for the murder of her father, defeated them at Dijon, and made them tributary to the Franks.

507. Chlodwig defeated the West Goths at Vouillé, or Voulon,1 on the Clain, a branch of the Vienne, in the vicinity of Poitiers.

The West Goths, assisted by the East Goths, defeated the Franks at Arles, and maintained their control of Septimania (the coast between the Rhône and Pyrenees).

Theodoric the Great united a part of southern Gaul to the kingdom of the East Goths, and undertook the government of that part which the West Goths retained, as well as of the Spanish possessions of that people, as the guardian of their king, his grandson Amalaric, a minor (son of Alaric II.), and retained it till his death (526), which first severed the connection of the two Gothic kingdoms. 507 (526)-711. West Gothic (Visigothic) Kingdom in Spain, with its capital at Toledo.

526. After the death of Theodoric, his daughter Amalasuntha became regent in the East Gothic kingdom for her son Athalaric. The latter died young (534), and his mother associated with herself as co-regent her cousin Theodahad (Theodat), who murdered her, thereby causing

535-555. War between the East Goths and the Eastern Empire. 533-534. Belisarius, general of Justinian, Emperor of the

East (527-565), destroyed the Vandal power in Africa. Decay of the kingdom of the Vandals after the death of Genseric (477). Hilderic deposed by Gelimer, whom Belisarius captured.

Brilliant campaign of Belisarius against Vitiges, king of the 540. East Goths, whom he carried captive to Constantinople.

Belisarius, after he had declined the Italian crown, offered
him by the East Goths, was dispatched by Justinian against
the Persians.

During his absence the East Goths, under their new king
Totila, reconquered the greater part of Italy.

1 Dahn, Die Könige d. Germ. V. 109.

« PreviousContinue »