Middle Ages Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Post-Roman kingdoms=== {{main|Barbarian kingdoms}} [[File:Europe and the Near East at 476 AD.png|thumb|upright=1.3|alt=A map depicting about a dozen polities in the west, and the Byzantine Empire in the east|[[Barbarian kingdoms|Post-Roman kingdoms]] and tribes, and the [[Byzantine Empire]] after the end of the Western Roman Empire]] In the post-Roman world, the fusion of Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes is well documented. [[Thing (assembly)|Popular assemblies]] that allowed free male tribal members more say in political matters than had been common in the Roman state developed into legislative and judicial bodies.{{sfn|Wickham|2009|pp=98β101}} Material artefacts left by the Romans and the invaders are often similar, and tribal items were often modelled on Roman objects.{{sfn|Collins|2010|pp=99β100}} Much of the scholarly and written culture of the new political entities was based on Roman intellectual traditions.{{sfn|Rubin|2014|pp=11β13}} Many of them no longer supported their armies through taxes, instead relying on granting them land or rents. This meant there was less need for large tax revenues and so the [[Roman Empire#Taxation|taxation systems]] decayed.{{sfn|Wickham|2009|pp=102β103}} In Britain, the local [[Celtic Britons]]' culture had little impact on the Anglo-Saxons' way of life, but the linguistic assimilation of masses of the natives to the newcomers is evident. By around 600, new political centres emerged, some local leaders accumulated considerable wealth, and a number of [[Heptarchy|small kingdoms]] such as [[Wessex]] and [[Mercia]] were formed. Smaller kingdoms in present-day [[Wales in the early Middle Ages|Wales]] and [[Scotland in the early Middle Ages|Scotland]] were still under the control of the native Britons and [[Picts]].{{sfn|Wickham|2009|pp=156β159}} [[History of Ireland (400β795)|Ireland]] was divided into even smaller political units, perhaps as many as [[List of Irish kingdoms|150 tribal kingdoms]].{{sfn|Wickham|2009|pp=164β165}} The [[Ostrogoths]] moved to Italy from the Balkans under [[Theoderic the Great]] (r. 493β526). He set up [[Ostrogothic Kingdom|a kingdom]] marked by its co-operation between the natives and the conquerors. Power struggles between Romanised and traditionalist Ostrogothic groups followed his death, providing the opportunity for the Byzantines to [[Gothic War (535β554)|reconquer Italy]].{{sfn|James|2009|pp=82β94}} The Burgundians settled in Gaul where they reorganised [[Kingdom of the Burgundians|their kingdom]].{{sfn|James|2009|pp=77β78}} Elsewhere in Gaul, the Franks and Celtic Britons set up stable polities. [[Francia]] was centred in northern Gaul, and the first king of whom much is known is [[Childeric I]] (d. 481). Under his son [[Clovis I]] (r. 509β11), the founder of the [[Merovingian dynasty]], the Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity.{{sfn|James|2009|pp=79β81}} Unlike other Germanic peoples, the Franks preferred mainstream Christianity to Arianism, which facilitated their cooperation with the native [[Gallo-Roman culture|Gallo-Roman]] aristocracy.{{sfn|Brown|1989|p=124}} Britons fleeing from {{lang|la|Britannia}}βmodern-day Great Britainβsettled in what is now [[Brittany]].{{refn|group=note|Brittany takes its name from this settlement by Britons.{{sfn|James|2009|p=78}}}}{{sfn|James|2009|p=78}} Other monarchies were established [[Visigothic Kingdom|by the Visigoths]] in the [[Iberian Peninsula]], [[Kingdom of the Suebi|the Suebi]] in northwestern Iberia, [[Vandal Kingdom|the Vandals]] in [[North Africa]],{{sfn|James|2009|p=77}} and the [[Lombards]] in [[Northern Italy]].{{sfn|Collins|2010|pp=203β209}} Coming from the Asian steppes, the nomadic [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] conquered most [[Early Slavs|Slavic]], [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] and Germanic tribes in the lowlands along the Lower and Middle Danube by the end of the 6th century, and they were routinely able to force the Byzantine emperors to pay tribute.{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=51β59}} In 681, another steppe people, the [[Bulgars]] [[Battle of Ongal|defeated]] a Byzantine imperial army, and established the [[First Bulgarian Empire]], subjugating the local Slavic tribes near the [[Danube Delta]].{{sfn|Curta|2019|pp=71β77}} The settlement of peoples was accompanied by changes in languages. [[Latin]], the literary language of the Western Roman Empire, was gradually replaced by distinct [[vernacular languages]] which evolved from Latin, collectively known as [[Romance languages]]. Greek remained the language of the Byzantine Empire, but the migrations of the Slavs expanded the area of [[Slavic languages]] in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]].{{sfn|Davies|1996|pp=235β238}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page