The Super Summary of World History - Alan Dale Daniel [51]
The problem was guilds imparted additional rigidity to the economic system hindering trade and industry growth. Some people might be able to do the job for less, but the guilds were powerful; thus, those with money (the ones doing the construction or buying the goods) wanted to maintain good relations. As bad as the plagues were in Europe, they did accomplish one important economic benefit, they created a real labor shortage and in those conditions the guild’s power to limit commerce diminished.
Government During The Dark Ages
During the early Dark Ages (453-1000), Europe shattered into little governments. The Roman imperial governmental system crashed, and the governments that remained were local in nature and thoroughly inept. Nation states, empires, and other regional governments simply did not exist immediately after Rome’s demise. Not until cities began to grow in size, wealth, and power did competent government begin to reassert itself.
Figure 14 Holy Roman Empire.
Cities favored the central government of a king over local warlords because the king could subdue a larger area, thus helping trade flow. Kings looked to the growing wealth of cities to fill their coffers. Slowly, central governments grew until kings controlled large areas forming states. The first areas advancing to the European nation state concept were France and England.
The Franks—France
In AD 496 the King of the Franks, Clovis, converted to Christianity. This was the start of the Merovingian dynasty. By the time of his death in AD 530, he conquered the area we now call France, and formed it into a state. None of the regional “kings” of the era governed like a national government today. Many of the local warlords still ran local areas, but they were allied with the king of the region and owed him feudal duties. It was nothing like our unified nation states in 2010. The Carolingian Empire arose in 751 in Gaul (France) when Pepin the Third deposed the last Merovingian ruler becoming the king. Thereafter, he expanded his rule to include an area nearly as large as the old Western Roman Empire. After the death of Pepin III in 768, his son Charlemagne (786 to 814) continued to expand the empire. He was a truly great ruler. For over forty-six years Charlemagne ruled his lands, termed the Holy Roman Empire, by constantly traveling and waging war. He refused to sit about his castle letting others tell him what was going on (smart guy), he went out and saw for himself. He established special schools and began pulling Central Europe out of its Dark Age.
On Christmas Day, in the year AD 800, the Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Roman Emperor. If this sounds odd, it should. The Roman Empire was gone, so how was this fellow being crowned emperor? To many Germanic tribes, Rome, as a central government, was all they knew. Anyone who controlled Gaul (the West) had to be a Roman emperor. Accordingly, the empire continued in the minds of people even though gone for hundreds of years. Such was the impact of Rome. In the East at Constantinople, the Emperor ( a woman named Irene who had killed her son to reach the position) did not like the pope crowning someone Roman Emperor. After all, the Eastern Empire of Byzantium considered themselves the real Roman Empire, while the pope controlled a backwater group of near barbarians. By giving the crown of Rome the pope implied the true crown of Rome was his alone to give. Charlemagne did not like the pope crowing him either. If the pope had the power to give the position he also had the power to take it away. The clear implication was the Church was greater than the state. The great king said nothing and went away not realizing what the pope had started.
Charlemagne kept governing and ignoring the Roman crown. Through his efforts alone he put many Dark Ages scourges to flight. The Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne died in 814, but the Dark Ages, which seemed to be ending with his rule, resumed with a sudden