The Crucible of the Middle Ages: The Ninth and Tenth Centuries in European History.
London: The Folio Society, 1998.
(This is a reprint of: The Crucible of Europe: The Ninth and Tenth Centuries in European History, London: Thames and Hudson, 1976.)
This book provides a political history of western Europe during the ninth and tenth centuries. The author describes this time as a period of transition. In 804 the Frankish kingdom reached its maximum territorial extent (map of Europe in 814) under Charlemange (c.740s - 814) and immediately began to disintegrate due to both internal and external forces. The notable external factors of disintegration were the somewhat simultaneous next-to-final waves of invasions experienced by Europe (the final wave being the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century): Vikings from the north, Saracens from the south, Magyars and Slavs from the east. Some notable internal forces of disintegration include: (a) the lack of effective administrative personnel and other infrastructure needed to rule a kingdom vast territory, such as existed, for example, during the first and second centuries in the Roman Empire; (b) the personal weaknesses of the successors of Charlemange; and (c) the repeated division of kingdoms by fathers among their several sons, which left the resulting smaller territories with fewer resources with which to defend themselves. The author describes processes that would eventually produce the later Middle Age states of France, Germany, Italy, and England: the restoration of order by monarchical governments controlling larger territories; the spread of feudalism; the settlement of invading/barbarian peoples into stable states; and the spread of Christianity (that of the Latin, Roman church; by this period western Europe had become completely independent of the now Greek "Roman" Empire of Constantinople, also known as the Eastern Empire, or Byzantine Empire). I would be remiss in not mentioning a significant person of this period: Otto I (912 - 973) of Germany. Regional differences in the relative strengths of kings, dukes, the aristocracy, vassals whether free or unfree, free men, peasants, the church, monestaries, the administration of kingdoms, economy, and so on, play a huge role in the character of these emerging states, and are impossible for me to summarize here. The author's strengths appear to lie in western continental Europe (confirmed on page 2 of this essay): most of the book focuses on the evolution of Charlemange's Frankish kingdom for two and one half centuries after Charlemange's death. The one chapter on England seems to rely heavily upon: F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford University Press.
About Geoffrey Barraclough:
- Geoffrey Barraclough: From historicism to historical science. (very interesting essay)
- The New York Review of Books, Author Archive.