From the fall of Rome in the West to Canossa — the feudal West built by the Franks and the papacy, Byzantium as heir of Rome, and a church divided east and west
Ronan Reinart · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
| Year | State | Event | Key point |
|---|---|---|---|
| 476 | Western Roman Empire | Fall of the West | Odoacer; Germanic kingdoms arise |
| 481 · 496 | Frankish kingdom | Conversion of Clovis | Catholic, not Arian → allied with Rome |
| 527–565 | Byzantium | Justinian | Corpus Juris Civilis, reconquest, Hagia Sophia |
| 529 | Western Church | Benedictine order | Poverty, chastity, obedience; “pray and work” |
| 610–641 | Byzantium | Reforms of Heraclius | Themes, soldier-farmers, Greek official |
| 726 | Byzantium | Iconoclasm | Leo III → pope objects, turns to Franks |
| 751 · 756 | Frankish kingdom | Carolingians; Donation of Pepin | Origin of the Papal States |
| 793–11th c. | Norsemen | Viking expansion | Normandy, Kievan Rus’, Sicily |
| 800 | Frankish kingdom | Coronation of Charlemagne | Latin West formed; Carolingian Renaissance |
| 843 · 870 | Frankish kingdom | Verdun and Meerssen | Origins of Germany, France, Italy |
| 9th–13th c. | Western Europe | Feudalism and manors | Reciprocal contract; serfs, immunity |
| 910 | Western Church | Abbey of Cluny | Against simony and clerical marriage |
| 962 | Germany | Coronation of Otto I | Holy Roman Empire (–1806) |
| 988 | Kievan Rus’ | Conversion of Vladimir I | Orthodoxy and Cyrillic adopted |
| 1054 | Church | East–West Schism | Roman Catholic ↔ Greek Orthodox |
| 1077 | Empire and papacy | Walk to Canossa | Investiture Controversy → papal supremacy |
Beginning around 375, when Visigoths driven by the Huns from Asia crossed the Danube into the Roman Empire, many Germanic peoples moved onto Roman soil and founded kingdoms there.
The Germanic commander Odoacer deposed the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, ending the Western Roman Empire.
Clovis, who became king of the Franks around 481, conquered most of Gaul to found the Frankish kingdom and converted to Roman Catholicism around 496.
The Byzantine emperor Justinian recovered former Western Roman lands such as North Africa and Italy and issued the Corpus Juris Civilis, seeking to restore the Roman Empire.
Around 529 Benedict founded a monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy and wrote a rule stressing poverty, chastity, obedience and work, which became the model for Western monasticism.
Justinian rebuilt Constantinople’s cathedral, burned in the Nika riots, as Hagia Sophia with a vast dome, dedicating it in 537.
Pope Gregory I protected Rome from the Lombards and sent missionaries to the Anglo-Saxons, laying the foundations for the Roman Church to become the spiritual centre of Western Europe.
Emperor Heraclius defeated Sasanian Persia and saw the empire through crisis by dividing it into military districts (themes) whose commanders also ran civil government.
Iconoclasm, begun in 726 when the Byzantine emperor Leo III banned the veneration of images, provoked the opposition of the Roman Church and drove the eastern and western churches apart.
The army of Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, governor of al-Andalus, advancing north across the Pyrenees, was defeated between Tours and Poitiers by the Frankish mayor of the palace Charles Martel.
Pepin, who founded the Carolingian dynasty in 751 with papal backing, gave the pope the lands around Ravenna taken from the Lombards in 756, laying the foundation of the Papal States.
From the late 8th century the Norse (Vikings) of Scandinavia sailed across Europe raiding and settling, founding the Duchy of Normandy, Kievan Rus’ and the Kingdom of Sicily, among others.
Charles, the Frankish king who had united most of Western Europe, was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day 800.
In 843 Charlemagne’s three grandsons divided the Frankish empire into East, West and Middle Francia by the Treaty of Verdun, and in 870 the Treaty of Meerssen divided the north of Middle Francia again.
From about the 9th century Western Europe developed feudalism, in which lords and vassals exchanged land (fiefs) for loyalty, and manorialism, in which lords ran estates worked by serfs.
The Rus’, a branch of the Norsemen, settled at Novgorod around 862, and in 882 Oleg moved their centre to Kyiv, founding Kievan Rus’, a state of the Eastern Slavs.
Founded in Burgundy in 910, the abbey of Cluny, free from lay control, led a movement of church reform against simony and clerical marriage.
In 911 King Charles III of West Francia granted the lower Seine to the Norse leader Rollo, creating the Duchy of Normandy.
Otto I, king of East Francia (Germany), who had defeated the Magyars, was crowned emperor by the pope in Rome in 962, beginning the Holy Roman Empire.
In 988 Vladimir I of Kievan Rus’ converted to Orthodox Christianity on marrying the Byzantine emperor’s sister, bringing Rus’ into the Byzantine cultural world.
In 1054 the papal legate and the patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other, splitting Christianity into Roman Catholicism in the west and Greek Orthodoxy in the east.
In 1066 Duke William of Normandy defeated King Harold II of England at the Battle of Hastings and took the throne, founding the Norman dynasty.
Excommunicated in a dispute with Pope Gregory VII over the right to appoint clergy (investiture), Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV begged forgiveness at the castle of Canossa in January 1077.
Byzantine emperor (r. 527–565) who reconquered former Roman lands, issued the Corpus Juris Civilis and rebuilt Hagia Sophia
Mayor of the palace of the Frankish kingdom who defeated the Muslim army at Tours–Poitiers in 732; his authority paved the way for his son Pepin to found the Carolingian dynasty
Merovingian king who founded the Frankish kingdom, uniting the Franks, conquering Gaul and converting to Catholic Christianity
Italian monk who founded Monte Cassino and wrote the Rule of Saint Benedict, the framework of Western monastic life
Pope (590–604) who defended Rome by negotiating with the Lombards and sent missionaries to the Anglo-Saxons, laying the foundations of papal power
Byzantine emperor (r. 610–641) who defeated Sasanian Persia but lost Syria and Egypt to the Arab Muslims
Byzantine emperor (r. 717–741) who repelled the Arab siege of Constantinople and began iconoclasm in 726
Governor of al-Andalus who crossed the Pyrenees into Francia in 732 and was killed at the Battle of Tours–Poitiers
Son of Charles Martel and first Carolingian king of the Franks, who gave lands taken from the Lombards to the pope (the Donation of Pepin)
King of the Franks (r. 768–814) who united most of Western Europe and was crowned Emperor of the Romans by the pope in 800
Pope (795–816) who crowned Charlemagne emperor in St Peter’s, Rome, on Christmas Day 800
King of East Francia (Germany) who defeated the Magyars at the Lechfeld in 955 and was crowned emperor by the pope in 962, founding the Holy Roman Empire