Europe Moves On Into The Eleventh Century

Europe Moves On Into The Eleventh Century

1000's on - Most of the professional entertainers are called minstrels* since almost all of them can sing, act, play instruments, dance and, often, tumble and do acrobatics. These minstrels* are popular among nobles and clergy throughout Europe.

* In the courts of ruling houses there are other forms of entertainments known as Mummings* and Disguisings*. These are mainly court entertainments which comes from the local celebrations like sword dances, dance of the buffoons, and Morris dances (where their blackened faces and bells may have come from the Moors). Especially in Britain, these usually include a clown, a fool, a hobby horse, a man dressed as Maid Marion and sometimes

a dragon and St. George. The Mummer's Plays* are done in dumb show, masks and disguises. They are given at

Christmas and their plots revolve around the apparent death of someone, a doctor comes in, does some really weird things, and the dead person is brought back to life. (Sounds a lot like the ancient Egyptian death and resurrection plays and probably owes a great deal to all the pagan winter celebrations.) In the Christmas plays Father Christmas is the presenter. The play is taken from house to house.

Other Disguisings* are performed during the carnival season prior to Lent. (Some of these persist down to the present day.) These Disguisings* will lead to the Renaissance court Masques* and Italian intermezzi*, and the French ballet de cour*. Disguisings* are done for all occasions.

1000 - By this time the School of Salerno, near Naples, Italy, has introduced Arabian medicine into southern Italy. Because of Otto* and the Empire, the knowledge spreads throughout Europe. The Viking, Lief Erikson*, makes his first voyage to America, but hardly anybody knows about it.

1010 - Things begin to fall apart in Moslem Spain. There are revolts in leadership, and Cordoba, as well as all Andalusia, descends into chaos. Their Christian neighbors regard this as a golden opportunity and immediately start attacking.

1013 - Cordoba falls and, as usual, the library is destroyed. Fortunately much of the contents are saved and dispersed, especially to Toledo*.

1014 - The Vikings help King Ethelred* retake London, pulling down London Bridge (remembered in the children's song) in the process.

1016 - England is now ruled by a part-viking named Canute*, who is married to ex-viking William of Normandy's* sister. This will lead to a real can of worms about English succession and a big change in the fortunes of England.

1028 - Canute* conquers Norway (he now rules Denmark, England and Norway.) 1040 - The Italians are finally beginning to apply their learning to the problem of law and a

Bolognese jurist Gratian* produces a lawyers textbook. Bologna is now the center of legal learning in Europe.

1044 - The first recorded reference to the use of gunpowder. They use it in the bombard*, a really useless early type of cannon. Gunpowder won't be widely used until later, but times are changing.

1050 - By now, every cathedral in Europe has a school. More useful to education, the Byzantine* Empire is importing Arabian paper and paper is being made in Moslem Spain.

1053 - Henry IV (German, of course) is crowned Holy Roman Emperor*. *1060 - At Nevers. a Nativity Play is performed. Soon these show up all over. In France

there are 11th century tropes for Christmas festivals. At Limoges these include episodes about the shepherds, the Magi and the manager scene. As time goes by scenes are added to include Herod, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the massacre of the innocents and the flight into Egypt.

1065 - The consecration of Westminster Abbey* in England. 1066 - The famous Battle of Hastings* is fought when William the Conqueror*, in a dispute

over who inherits the English throne, crosses the English Channel and takes England. This throws the current English language into disrepute and it will take a few centuries for the new English language to rise from a blend of Norman French and native Anglo-Saxon. There is an anti-Jewish uprising in Granada. The beginning of what will come to be an all out persecution.

1071 - The wild and aggressive Turkish tribes the Arabs had been employing as slaves and mercenaries have replaced their masters and are now running things in Egypt (known as the Seljuk Turks from their homeland.) They take Jerusalem* away from the resident Arabs. They are much more aggressively puritanically Moslem than their former masters and start to make things very difficult for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land* . They also begin to push into what remains of the Byzantine Empire*.

1076 - The rising social organization in Europe gets some help from the rediscovery of the Digest*, (that condensed version of Justinian's laws) apparently in Ravenna.