Astronomy: The scientific study of the stars and other heavenly bodies, and their movement in the sky.
Chain mail: A lightweight, flexible armor made of interlocking metal rings.
Christendom: The Christian world.
Communion: The Christian ceremony of commemorating the last supper of Jesus Christ.
Epic: A long poem that recounts the adventures of a legendary hero.
Geometry: A type of mathematics dealing with various shapes, their properties, and their measurements.
Mace: A club with spikes on the end, typically used for breaking armor.
Mead: An intoxicating drink of fermented honey, popular among Vikings and other Germanic peoples of Northern Europe.
Noble: A ruler within a kingdom who has an inherited title and lands, but who is less powerful than the king or queen; collectively, nobles are known as the nobility.
Nomadic: Wandering.
Vatican: The seat of the pope's power in Rome.
Nasty, the Carolingians (kayr-uh-LINJ-ee-unz).
The name came from that of Pepin's son Charles, sometimes known as Carolus Magnus, meaning "Charles the Great." He is better known as Charlemagne (SHAR-luh-main;
742-814; ruled 768-814), and he was the single most important Western European leader of the Early Middle Ages. Under Charlemagne, Western Europe had something it had not seen for centuries: a vibrant, growing empire. Already the Frankish territories comprised most of what is now France and western Germany, but Charlemagne started expanding the boundaries, first by defeating the Saxons to the north in 777. He saw himself as more than a conqueror, however, and with the conquest came the forced conversion of the Saxons to Christianity.
His father Pepin had already dealt the Lombards a harsh blow in 756, after which he turned their territories in eastern Italy over to the church in an act known as the Donation of Pepin. Thenceforth these were called the Papal States, and would exist as such until the 1800s. Charlemagne completed the conquest of the Lombards, receiving their crown as his own in 774. He then turned his attention to Spain, where in 778 he tried unsuccessfully to win back Muslim-held territories for Christendom. Further campaigns resulted in Charlemagne unifying virtually all German territories, including the kingdom of Bavaria in southern Germany.
In 794, Charlemagne established his capital at Aachen (AH-ken;
A map of Europe showing the territorial gains made under Charlemagne's rule. Illustration by XNR Productions. Reproduced by permission of the Gale Croup.
In modern-day Germany), a city famous for its mineral baths. The year 800 marked the high point of his career, when he became the first European emperor to visit Rome in three centuries. The Byzantine rulers had cut themselves off from Rome; therefore Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Carolus Augustulus, Emperor of the Romans, on Christmas Day. This was in effect the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire, which, though it never lived up to its magnificent name, was destined to become a significant part of the Middle Ages.
World History
