Chrisian History - Andrew Longsden

1. What factors contributed to the collapse of the Carolingian Empire?
   
   The Carolingian empire collapsed after the death of Charlemagne the reason for this being so was due to the Teutonic inheritance  which was not based upon primogeniture and therefore led to automatic division of lands and property systemic weakness and to the relative incompetence of his sons whose squabbles over the spoils furthered exacerbated the situation. After the death of Louis the Pious in 840, the hostility between his sons led to the establishment of political divisions roughly equivalent to later France and Germany which generated enduring conflict for the following eleven centuries. Other factors were the activities of invading peoples such as the Vikings, Slavs and Magyars at a time when the response was sporadic and disorganised and the impact of the evolving feudal system which was based upon a greater co-dependence between ruler and the most prominent subjects. Nonetheless, the legacy of the Carolingian Empire was considerable, arguably more significant for the future than its actual existence had been for the Europe of Charlemagne!
2. What is feudalism? How was the Church influenced by feudalism and how did it attempt to lessen the excesses of the feudal lords?
   
   Feudalism was a system based upon loyalty, service and obligations in return for landholding; The land holding would often be a small strip of land for which the peasant would work and give some of the fruits of labour to the land owner as well as to serve his lord in a form of military service in return for protection often the peasants could get a certain amount of time off for a pilgrimage some of these as far as the holy land.
3. What was involved in the Investiture Controversy? How did this plague church-state relations in the Middle Ages?
   
   The investiture controversy was not a plague in the sense of the black death more kings exerting their divine authority by electing persons in to church positions .what we had in the middle ages was land being acquired in vast amounts either by donations or acquisition also the church did not answer to the kings country they was stationed in this could have brought jealousy and in the short term helped to wards the creating of the church of England and numerous protestant countries .This could be due to kings expect spiritual guidance and not to be told to hand over property and titles.

 

 

Andrew Longsden