Carolingian Empire - stretched from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea => linked the Germanic and the Slavic worlds of the north; the Islamic world of Spain, the Near East, and the Mediterranean world of Byzantium
*Charlemagne - reformed the currency (introduced the silver coinage - replaced the gold currency)
- trade: cloth, furs, amber from the Baltic; Jewish and Greek merchants supplied the Frankish church and aristocracy with luxury goods from Constantinople and the East

England

King Offa of Mercia (757-796) - the only king to whom Charlemagne referred to as brother => ruled over a prosperous southeast England (acknowledged as leader by other Anglo-Saxons rulers)

- his power => based on military actions against the Welsh => he constructed a great dike (25 feet high and 150 miles long) along the Welsh frontier
    * Mercia => prosperous: trading with the Continent (Anglo-Saxon wool and silver/ for wine, oil and other products)
    * Mercia's prosperity => ended with the rule of Offa => 9th C. => Mercia fell to Wessex
- the cycle of rise and fall of kingdoms => interrupted by the Vikings

786: Scandinavian raiders - were attacking the coast (but not a great threat)
865: a Viking army - landed north of the Humber River => all (but one) Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were destroyed (3 kings - killed; one - forced to abdicate)

Alfred of Wessex (870-899) - reorganized his army
    - established a network of fortifications
    - created a navy
==>> halted the Viking conquest
- for success => he decided to transform his political base => he had to win the loyalty of his people and attract the Anglo-Saxons (outside his kingdom)

Measures:
- reformed the legal and cultural foundations of his kingdom => equal treatment of his subjects => the reforms emphasized the importance of oaths of loyalty and gravity of treason
- arranged marriage alliances with noble families
- religious and cultural program => extended literacy and learning => people might understand and follow God's word (used vernacular Anglo-Saxon; Latin - poorly known) => translation of the books
899: at Alfred's death => southern England - united under Wessex leadership

* Eastern England (north of the Thames River) => occupied and colonized by Danes (Danelaw) => the Vikings settled as farmers => merged with the local population

Scandinavia

In England - Scandinavians => merchants - traded furs, amber and fish for English silver and cloth
- merchants => sailed with a Scandinavian merchant Viking - in a longboat
the longboat: more than 70 feet long; fast; flexible and easy to maneuvered; allowed Scandinavians to cross the ocean to America; to navigate the shallow rivers of Europe

Scandinavian society:
- like the Germanic society (1st C)
- 3 social classes:
    - the wealthy chiefs (at the top) => jarlar (earls); they had servants and slaves
    - peasant freeholders - the majority of the population
    - the thralls, or bondsmen

Scandinavians - lived for personal glory and war booty => military ability prized in men and women
    * women - considerable freedom and authority
    * Arab merchant (950) - women could claim the right to divorce whenever they wanted

9th C. => changes in the Scandinavian society => contributed to the expansion into the rest of Europe

Kings - selected by groups of earls => they were first among equals
BUT: end of 8th C. => kings started to consolidate their power => earls and royal pretenders threatened or displaced by the kings => began to go viking, or raiding => to replace abroad what they lost at home

Directions: Northmen went viking:
    Swedes - East => trade with the Slavic world and Byzantium
    Norwegians - Ireland, Scotland, Greenland, Iceland, and North America
    Danes - focus on England and Frankish empire

Swedish merchant Vikings - Varangians or Rus' => traveled down the Volga, Dvina, and Dnepr rivers => to the Black and Caspian seas - for furs and slaves
    * Rus' fortified trading settlements - Novgorod, Smolensk, Kiev => nuclei of a Slavic-Scandinavian political unit => the Rus' gave their name => Russia

early 860: the Slavic tribes around Novgorod - accepted the Varangian chief: Ryurik (as ruler)
- the house of Ryurik => spread its control over other communities
882: captured Kiev => united the two towns => this was the beginning of the creation of a Russian empire

Norwegians - interested in Europe's western islands (8th C)
    - Ireland: undisturbed by Roman or Germanic invaders => the first victim
    - raids - along the coast of the Frankish kingdom, Spain, Mediterranean region (Provence, North Africa, and Italy)
    * Norwegians plundered the city of Luna (they mistook for Rome) => unable to take the town, the commander had his men inform the Italians that the Norwegian leader had died. Since he had been a Christian, they wished him to receive a Christian burial. When the chieftain's body was brought into the city by his mourning followers, he rose from the dead and killed the bishop. Then he and his men sacked the town

872: political consolidation of Norway - under Harold Finehair (860-933) => more Norwegians went viking
    - some settled in Faroe Islands
    - others colonized Iceland

The Danes => Frankish and Anglo-Saxon realms
    - Frankish empire => raids against wealthy monasteries or trading towns => followed by massive conquests  => colonized regions like Northumbria and the mouth of the Seine River => this region later became known as Normandy (land of the Northmen)

The Slavic World

Antiquity and early Middle Ages: Slavic and Germanic people => hard to distinguish
6th C: Slavic tribes begun to filter west (or not)
7th C: a Frank - Samo: organized a brief (powerful) confederation of Slavs (between the Sudeten Mountains and the eastern Alps) => they resisted both the Avars and the Merovingians
8th C: the Great Moravian empire - Slavic tribes along the March River
    * Byzantine and Carolingian empires - tried to bring Moravia into their spheres of influence
    * 9th C: Frankish, Italian and Greek missionaries - compete to organize a Christian church in the Slavic empire
    * 852: Slavic prince turned to the Greeks => Cyril and Methodius
864: Louis the German (Carolingian king) conquered Moravia => Methodius (appointed archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia) was imprisoned in a German monastery => Frankish hegemony lasted a few decades

895: the Magyars (Hungarians) - a new steppe people => swept into Pannonia => they destroyed the Franks' Moravian empire => split the Slavic world in two => the South Slavs (the Balkans)
                           the Northern Slavs (Poland, Russia and Ukraine)

- Magyars conquered Pannonia - to the Enns River => they raided deep into the Carolingian empire (as far west as modern Burgundy)