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Do not fill this in! ===Rise of state power=== [[File:Europe mediterranean 1190.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|alt=Map depicting the borders of empires, kingdoms and other states in Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa|Europe and the Mediterranean Sea in 1190]] The High Middle Ages saw the development of institutions that would dominate political life in Europe until the late {{nowrap|18th century}}, or even further.{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=395–396}} The kings' right to rule without a foreign power's intercession became widely accepted, inducing the idea of [[state sovereignty]].{{refn|group=note|The formation of the idea is mainly attributed to the [[Early modern period|early modern]] philosophers [[Jean Bodin]] (d. 1596) and [[Thomas Hobbes]] (d. 1679) but the concept developed during the conflicts between the emperors and the papacy. Already in 1202, a papal [[decretal]] stated that "a king is an emperor in his kingdom", expressing that kings were not subject to the emperor's authority, and implying the equal status of secular monarchs.{{sfn|Grzymała-Busse|2023|pp=68–70}}}}{{sfn|Fried|2015|pp=272–273}} The concept of [[hereditary monarchy]] was strengthening,{{sfn|Watts|2014|p=64}} and the first [[Queen regnant|queens regnant]] assumed power, as female succession was recognised in most countries.{{refn|group=note|[[Urraca of León|Urraca]] (r. 1109–26) reigned in León and [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]], [[Petronilla of Aragon|Petronilla]] (r. 1137–62) in [[Kingdom of Aragon|Aragón]], and [[Constance, Queen of Sicily|Constance]] (r. 1194–98) in [[Kingdom of Sicily|Sicily]].{{sfn|Fößel|2016|p=75}}}}{{sfn|Fößel|2016|pp=75–79}} The [[Chancery (medieval office)|chancery]] emerged as the central office of royal government but also acted as a [[Appellate court|court of appeals]].{{sfn|Grzymała-Busse|2023|pp=86–90}} Taxation quickly developed because revenues from the royal domains could no more cover state expenditures. Initially, extraordinary taxes were levied for military purposes but by the end of the period taxes had been collected on a more regular basis.{{sfn|Grzymała-Busse|2023|pp=92–98}} Effective taxation depended on consent which reinforced the role of [[Representative assembly|representative assemblies]], allowing them to exert influence on state administration.{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=395–399}}{{sfn|Grzymała-Busse|2023|pp=155–160}} The papacy, long attached to an ideology of independence from secular influence, first asserted its claim to temporal authority over the entire Christian world.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=7}} The [[Temporal power (papal)|Papal Monarchy]] reached its apogee under the pontificate of {{nowrap|[[Pope Innocent III|Innocent III]]}} (pope 1198–1216).{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=371–379}} As rulers of much of central Italy and feudal overlords of some of the Catholic rulers, the popes became deeply involved in secular politics.{{sfn|Fried|2015|p=271}} Sicily and southern Italy had been [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|seized]] by [[Italo-Normans|Norman]] warbands from the local Lombard, [[Catepanate of Italy|Byzantine]] and [[Emirate of Sicily|Muslim rulers]] between 1016 and 1091, and [[Roger II of Sicily|Roger II]] (r. 1105–54) united the Norman principalities into the [[Kingdom of Sicily]].{{sfn|Barber|2004|pp=206–210}} In the [[Holy Roman Empire]], the Ottonians were replaced by the [[Salian dynasty|Salians]] in 1024. They protected the lesser nobility to reduce ducal power, and seized [[Kingdom of Arles|Burgundy]] before clashing with the papacy under {{nowrap|Henry IV}}.{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=259–260}} After a short interval between 1125 and 1137, the [[Hohenstaufen]]s succeeded the Salians. Their recurring conflicts with the papacy allowed the northern Italian cities and the [[Imperial Estate|German princes]] to extort considerable concessions from them. In 1183, [[Frederick I Barbarossa|{{nowrap|Frederick I}} Barbarossa]] (r. 1155–90) [[Peace of Constance|sanctioned]] the right of the [[Lombard League|Lombard cities]] to elect their leaders; the princes' autonomy was [[Statutum in favorem principum|recognised]] during the reign of his grandson {{nowrap|[[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]]}} (r. 1220–50).{{sfn|Barber|2004|pp=182–203}} {{nowrap|Frederick II's}} efforts to dominate Italy eventually led to the fall of his dynasty.{{refn|group=note|{{nowrap|Frederick II}} was famed for his erudition and unconventional life style: he had a harem, was dressed in Arab-style garments, and wore a mantle decorated with [[Āyah|verses from the Quran]] during his imperial coronation in Rome.{{sfn|Backman|2022|p=411}}}} In Germany, a period of interregnum, or rather civil war began, whereas Sicily—Frederick's maternal inheritance—was seized by an ambitious French prince [[Charles I of Anjou]] (r. 1266–85).{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=409–413}} During the German civil war, the right of seven [[prince-elector]]s to elect the king was reaffirmed. [[Rudolf of Habsburg]] (r. 1273–91), the first German king to be elected after the interregnum, realised that he was unable to control the whole empire. He granted [[Duchy of Austria|Austria]] to his sons, thus establishing the basis for the [[Habsburgs]]' future dominance in Central Europe.{{sfn|Watts|2014|pp=160–170}}{{sfn|Backman|2022|p=413}} After his death, three Alpine peasant communities formed the [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Swiss Confederacy]] to defend their judicial autonomy against his kinsmen.{{sfn|Fried|2015|p=319}}{{sfn|Watts|2014|p=104}} [[File:Bayeux Tapestry scene44 William Odo Robert.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|alt=An embroiled cloth depicting three men sitting on a bench|The [[Bayeux Tapestry]] (detail) showing [[William the Conqueror]] (centre), his half-brothers [[Robert, Count of Mortain]] (right) and [[Odo, Earl of Kent|Odo]], Bishop of [[Bayeux]] in the [[Duchy of Normandy]] (left)]] The French monarchy slowly began to expand its authority over the nobility.{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=261–264}} The kings faced a powerful rival in the [[Duke of Normandy|Dukes of Normandy]], who in 1066 under [[William the Conqueror]] (r. 1035–87) conquered England. This cross-Channel empire further expanded when {{nowrap|[[Henry II of England|Henry II]]}} (r. 1154–89) from the [[Angevin kings of England|Angevin dynasty]] ascended the throne, as he had seized large areas of France through inheritance and marriage.{{refn|group=note|Henry inherited [[County of Anjou|Anjou]] from [[Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou|his father]], and seized [[Duchy of Aquitaine|Aquitaine]] by marrying the heiress [[Eleanor of Aquitaine|Eleanor]] (r. 1137–1204) just months after her marriage to [[Louis VII of France]] (r. 1137–80) had been [[Declaration of nullity|annulled]].{{sfn|Barber|2004|p=257}}}}{{sfn|Jordan|2002|pp=60, 149-152}} The first [[Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland|Anglo-Norman lordships]] in Ireland were established during his reign.{{sfn|Wickham|2016|p=85}} Under his son [[Richard I of England|Richard I]] (r. 1189–99), the [[Angevin Empire]] remained intact, but Richard's brother [[John, King of England|John]] (r. 1199–1216) [[French invasion of Normandy (1202–1204)|lost]] the northern French possessions to the French king [[Philip II of France|Philip II Augustus]] (r. 1180–1223).{{sfn|Jordan|2002|pp=156-160}} John's financial exactions to pay for his unsuccessful attempts to regain Normandy led in 1215 to [[Magna Carta]], a charter that confirmed the rights and privileges of free men in England.{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=400–401}} In France, Philip Augustus's son {{nowrap|[[Louis VIII of France|Louis VIII]]}} (r. 1223–26) distributed large portions of his father's conquests among his younger sons as [[appanage]]s—virtually independent provinces—to facilitate their administration.{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=404–406}} His son [[Louis IX of France|Louis IX]] (r. 1226–70) improved local administration by appointing inspectors known as {{lang|fr|enquêteurs}} to oversee the royal officials' conduct. The [[Parlement of Paris|royal court at Paris]] began hearing litigants in regular sessions almost all over the year.{{sfn|Barber|2004|pp=266–268}} The Iberian Christian states began to push back against the Islamic powers in the south, a period known as the {{lang|es|[[Reconquista]]}}.{{sfn|Wickham|2016|p=145}} After numerous divisions and reunifications of the Christian states, the Christian north had coalesced into the four kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]], [[Kingdom of Aragon|Aragon]], [[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]], and [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]] by 1230.{{sfn|Fried|2015|pp=185–188, 299}}{{sfn|Backman|2022|pp=279–281}} Aragon emerged as a naval power, conquering [[War of the Sicilian Vespers|Sicily]] from the [[Capetian House of Anjou|Italian Angevins]], and [[Aragonese conquest of Sardinia|Sardinia]] from the Genoese.{{sfn|Barber|2004|pp=322–325}}{{sfn|Fried|2015|pp=304–307}} Southern Iberia remained under the control of Islamic states, initially under the [[Caliphate of Córdoba]], which broke up in 1031 into a shifting number of petty states known as ''[[taifa]]s''. Although the [[Almoravid dynasty|Almoravids]] and the [[Almohad Caliphate|Almohads]], two dynasties from the [[Maghreb]], established centralised rule over Southern Iberia in the 1110s and 1170s respectively, their empires quickly disintegrated, allowing further expansion of the Christian kingdoms.{{sfn|Barber|2004|pp=307–315}} The Catholic Scandinavian states also expanded: the Norwegian kings assumed control of the Norse colonies in Iceland and [[Norse Greenland|Greenland]], Denmark seized [[Danish Estonia|parts of Estonia]], and the Swedes conquered [[Finland under Swedish rule|Finland]].{{sfn|Barber|2004|pp=344–352}} In the east, Kievan Rus' [[Council of Liubech|fell apart]] into independent principalities. Among them, the northern [[Vladimir-Suzdal]] emerged as the dominant power after Suzdalian troops [[Sack of Kiev (1169)|sacked Kyiv]] in 1169.{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=300–305}} Poland also [[Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth|disintegrated]] into autonomous duchies, enabling the Czech kings to expand in the prosperous [[Duchy of Silesia]].{{sfn|Barber|2004|pp=300, 333}} The kings of Hungary seized [[Croatia in personal union with Hungary|Croatia]] but respected the liberties of the native aristocracy. They claimed (but only periodically achieved) suzerainty over other lands and peoples such as [[Dalmatia]], [[Banate of Bosnia|Bosnia]], and the nomadic [[Cumans]].{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=336–337, 367–388}} The Cumans supported the Bulgarians and [[Vlachs]] during their [[Uprising of Asen and Peter|anti-Byzantine revolt]] that led to the restoration of [[Second Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]] in the late {{nowrap|12th century}}.{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=674–694}} To the west of Bulgaria, [[Serbia in the Middle Ages|Serbia]] gained independence.{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=660–666}} With the rise of the [[Mongol Empire]] in the Eurasian Steppe under [[Genghis Khan]] (r. 1206–27), a new expansionist power reached Europe.{{sfn|Barber|2004|pp=458–460}} [[Mongol invasion of Europe|Between 1236 and 1242]], the Mongols conquered Volga Bulgaria, shattered the Rus' principalities, and laid waste to large regions in Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria. Their commander-in-chief [[Batu Khan]] (r. 1241–56)—a grandson of Genghis Khan—set up his capital at [[Sarai (city)|Sarai]] on the Volga, establishing the [[Golden Horde]], a virtually autonomous Mongol state. The Mongols extracted heavy tribute from the Rus' principalities, and the Rus' princes had to ingratiate themselves with the Mongol khans for economic and political concessions.{{refn|group=note|Prince [[Alexander Nevsky]] (d. 1263) made four visits at Sarai to gain the Khans' favor. He overcame his rivals with Mongol assistance, crushed an anti-Mongol riot in [[Novgorod]], and received a grant of tax exemption for the Orthodox Church.{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=711–712}}}}{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=703–715}} Under Mongol pressure, the [[Sultanate of Rum|Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate]] disintegrated into small but often aggressive [[Anatolian beyliks|Turkic lordships]], such as the one ruled by the [[Ottoman dynasty|Ottoman clan]] on the Byzantine border.{{sfn|Wickham|2016|p=181}} The Mongol conquest was followed by a [[Pax Mongolica|peaceful period]] in Eastern Europe which facilitated the development of direct trade contacts between Europe and China through newly established [[Genoese Gazaria|Genoese colonies]] in the Black Sea region.{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=716–717}} The new land and sea routes to the Far East were famously described in ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo]]'' written by one of the traders, [[Marco Polo]] (d. 1324).{{sfn|Barber|2004|p=58}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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