ENGLAND
Anglo-Saxon England had been raided extensively after the Romans left in 450. In the eighth and ninth centuries the Vikings began further invasions. The interim was concerned with sporadic invasions. Little survives of the period from the fifth to the eighth centuries. The literary and religious documents that do remain indicated a refined culture at least in the monastic communities. The great Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf, was most likely written in the seventh or eighth century. The monk known as the Venerable Bede, the author of Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and who died in 735, was one of the greatest scholars and writers of this time. The art and architecture that survived the invasions indicate an advanced Christian civilization in the early eighth century. The Danish Viking raids of the late eighth century destroyed some of the monastic centers and many of the manuscripts in their libraries.
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great, the Saxon king of Wessex from 871 to 899, came into this setting. He struggled against the Danish invaders, defeated them in 878, and arranged the Danelaw, which restricted the Danes to lands north of the Thames River and left southern England, including London, under Alfred's control. Alfred also insisted that the Danes accept Christianity.
Alfred's government
Alfred's government, like many of the early Germanic governments, was based on the ancient Germanic structure. Alfred had his Witan, which consisted of nobles, or earls, and thegns; and he also had a strong alliance with the church.
The legal system was also Germanic. The wergild, or cash value placed on each man according to rank, was the prime method of settling criminal matters.
In late-seventh-century Wessex, for example, the wergild for a peasant was 200 shillings (1 shilling = 5 silver pennies), for a nobleman 1,200 shillings. If a nobleman were killed, the family of the dead man would receive 1,200 shillings from the killer. To gauge the value of 1,200 shillings at this time, consider that the value of sixteen oxen and one hundred sheep in seventh-century Kent was 200 shillings. A peasant's worth was equal that of sixteen oxen and one hundred sheep. A nobleman's worth was six times that. Trial by ordeal and oath-swearing were also used as legal methods to determine guilt or innocence.
Alfred and Anglo-Saxon culture
Alfred the Great is considered the founder of the English kingdom and the greatest European ruler after Charlemagne. The reason for these titles are many. Alfred established the first strong English kingdom, and held the invaders at bay. His concern, like that of Charlemagne, was to further learning. Alfred, himself, was a scholar. He sought out scholars who would help to revive the quality of learning that had existed in the early monastic communities. Like Charlemagne, he was concerned for the education of the clergy.
Alfred also ordered several Latin manuscripts be translated into Anglo-Saxon. These translations included Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Beothius' Consolation of Philosophy, and several books of Scripture.
During this time Alfred urged the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 892. This Chronicle, which continued for more than a century after the Norman Conquest, is the earliest history of a nation that still exists.
England after Alfred
England, unlike the Frankish kingdom, remained strong after Alfred's death in 899. Alfred's son and grandson, Edward and Athelstan were powerful leaders who not only kept the kingdom intact, but also renewed the war with the Danes so that they could bring all England under one kingdom. This was accomplished by 954 when Eric Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of York, was killed. The king of Wessex then ruled all of England.
Learn more about King Alfred!
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE
From the ninth to the eleventh centuries the Byzantine Empire began to revive. The reason for this recovery was a dynasty of strong kings known as the Macedonian kings who ruled for nearly two hundred years. The greatest king of this dynasty was Basil II, who reigned from 976 to 1025.
Basil II became known as the "Bulgarian Slayer" because he devastated the Bulgarian army in 1014 and sent the fifteen thousand prisoners home blinded. He regained southern Italy for the empire and added Syria and parts of the Moslem lands in the East. In 1020 Armenia willingly joined the empire.
During the reign of Basil II, the Byzantine Empire gained the most territory held by the empire since Justinian. During this same period Constantinople became the cultural center of the Mediterranean, and Byzantine culture reached its highest point.
After the death of Basil II, the dynasty and the empire weakened steadily leading ultimately to the decline of the empire in the fifteenth century.
